


5 Seconds Of Boarding School

by Strength_in_pain



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 5sos music, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Best Friends, Bromance, Gen, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Child Abuse, Quiet Luke, Secrets, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, football player calum, mentions of bullying, mentions of sexual abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-03-01 21:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 90,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13303566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strength_in_pain/pseuds/Strength_in_pain
Summary: Michael clutched the guitar with a white fist, his eyes blinking back tears. "I've never been the type to speak up. I can't do it alone. But I've alway wanted to. Please guys, this is my only opportunity to make a difference.""Do you actually think we can make a difference.""I don't know." Michael said with a sigh, "all I know is we have to try.""And what happens when Feldmann doesn't like the messages we're preaching?"Michael shrugged, "it's a risky move, but we might be able to do it through music. It can be our excuse. You know damn well Mr. Day will support us."Ashton shrugged, "I don't see why we shouldn't give it a shot."





	1. Chapter 1

_Sometimes life is just unbelievably unfair,_ Ashton Irwin thought profoundly as he sat slouched against the black leather bus seat. He leaned his cheek on the cool metal window to stare out in the distance at the passing buildings and trees. During this quiet time he reflected on the past couple of weeks and concluded that life is one hundred percent unfair. He was a relatively good kid, given the exception of what he did two days ago, he didn't deserve this. He always did his homework, he always did his chores, he ate dinner with his family (even if they did not appreciate that), he sings in church choir and he does community service. He does everything he's asked but now he's on a bus headed to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere all because he made one mistake. It's like the universe wants Ashton to break in half. Just last year Ashton spent his free time trying to find dinner for his family out of the trailer yard dumpsters. The year before that, he was erasing the memory of his step father from his younger sister's mind. No matter, though, he practically raised his sister, Lauren, so it wasn't hard to convince her that the man walking out on her was nothing more than a panhandling hobo.

Even though life threw him some tough curveballs, Ashton could always handle it until now. He never expected to be sent to boarding school. He wasn't even at the school yet and it already felt like he was in a prison. If anyone asks Ashton why he is at boarding school his answer would be simple: my parents hate me. Even though that was true, Ashton knew the real reason he was going to a correctional school. It was what happened two days ago. His mother had told him not to come home unless he brought back food for their family to eat. To please his Mother, Ashton took drastic measures to ensure his family ate that night. That's right, he stole from a grocery store. It was a damn can of green beans and some freaking eggs but it was enough for the police to threaten throwing his ass in jail. Being only 16, Ashton pleaded for them not to, even though his parents didn't care what happened to him they still managed to offer him a lawyer considering it was in his rights. Ashton has come to the conclusion that due to his failure family the police ultimately decided to send him to a correctional boarding school rather than juvey. In fact, he was sure he overhear one of the cops say, 'it isn't his fault he doesn't have a family to teach him right from wrong.' Ashton assumes that is what the boarding school is for, teaching him right from wrong. It petrified Ashton to think of the criminal students that might be there. Would he have to share a room with one of them? How would the teachers treat him? He is a good kid. He doesn't deserve to be treated like a juvenile delinquent. Ashton fiddled with his hands and glanced nervously at the driver of the bus. This was going to be a hard year for him. He was already coming into the school year late. It was the start of the second semester for all students at the Summers Institution Boarding School. It was like moving again, and Ashton knew all about moving; his parents had moved at least twelve times in his life until they ultimately ended up in a trailer home. But this time, Ashton wasn't going to have his parents by his side. He wasn't going to have his freedom. He had absolutely no idea what to expect and the worst part was, he is all alone, not to mention broke. The bus picked up a few more students for this semester as they passed a tiny town with creative art all around the tunnels. They walked on, sat down, then chatted about some crazy stuff they did over winter break, stuff that Ashton couldn't care less about. To calm his nerves, Ashton put in some headphones and turned on some loud music to sooth his mind. Nirvana was currently singing in his ear when he dozed off.

A shake on the shoulder made Ashton jolt upright. Eyes wide, he shouted a random, slightly panicked, "what?" Taking his ear buds out, his eyes made contact with the bus driver. "We're here kid."   
His eyes scanned the empty bus before darting back to the driver.

"Where do I go?" He asked, hands sweating as well as his face.

"A lady is waiting for you right outside." The man said, pointing to a woman wearing a grey skirt and black blouse. She was standing in front of a line of students - probably the ones that were recently on the bus - outside of the entrance to the grey brick building. There was an enormously large gate with rusted black letters that spelled Summers Institution and below it in smaller letters was a wooden plaque that said Boarding School for Troubled Boys. Ashton gulped and rushed over to the woman.

"Ah, Mr. Irwin, is it?" She tisked.

Ashton nodded, and the lady crossed his name off on a clipboard list.

"Late already?" She asked, her tone mocking, "let this be a warning, tardiness will not be accepted when you attend classes, understood?"

Ashton nodded eagerly. "Good. Go stand next to Mr. Garen and Mr. Jenkins."

"I don't know who they are." Ashton whispered quietly. The woman sent him a death glare as if saying, 'watch your lip.'   
Life was really unfair to him.

"Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Garen raise your hands." Two boys with dark brown hair raised their hands and Ashton fell into place next to them.

"As I was saying, I am Professor Lash, I'm the math teacher here. I am in charge of the Freshmen or as you would like to call them, newbe's, or fresh meat. I am not in charge of all of you because some of you are not Freshmen. Freshmen are fifteen years old and seniors are eighteen. Okay, now I am going to group you into groups based on your age and I want you to stay in that group for the rest of the tour. If you are fifteen please step forward."

A small group of kids moved forward. Most of them were short, with awkward noses and smiles.

"Alright, gentlemen you will be under my charge. I am your house leader. If you are sixteen please step forward."

Ashton looked around and saw a few guys stepping forward so he did too.

"Alright, sophomores your house leader is Mr. Day. If you are seventeen step forward."

Only two kids stepped forward.

"Alright boys, your house leader is Mr. Kali. Finally, the rest of you left must be seniors. Are all of you 18?" The group nodded, "good. Your house leader is Miss Almorado." Some kids snickered at her name, Professor Lash continued anyway, "Each of you will be dorming with another boy from your grade. I will show you to your rooms tonight after our tour. As of now, Principal Feldmann is going to explain the rules, consequences and schedule. Any questions?"

One boy boldly mumbled, "yeah, what time do we leave this place."

"Ah, Mister Conley, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. But as a warning, back talk is not permitted."

After a few moments of silence and a red faced boy, professor Lash said, "follow me." And she led the boys into the school. This was Ashton's last chance to soak up the sunlight, he thought, as he walked into the black abyss.

Professor Lash led the boys down the hall and into the principals office. Principal Feldmann was surprisingly a friendly looking man with receding white hair, crystal blue eyes and a white dress shirt. He sat in a black chair with a smile on his round oval face which made him look like a movie star.   
Principal Feldmann, stood up, shook professor Lash's hand and then stared at the boys.

"Hello gentlemen. You are here because you have done something bad in your life or your parents chose for you to be here because you were too much of a handful at home. Our job here is to fix that. Our goal is to strengthen you and send you out into the world as fine young individuals. Therefore, we have a strict policy that you need to follow."

Some boys looked at each other with nervous faces, but Ashton didn't expect anything less. He knew boarding schools had strict policies. He already planned on being in hell because life hated him.

"Do not be concerned," Feldmann continued, "this is a give and take situation. As long as you follow our policies then you will be rewarded. I'll get into that a little bit later. As of now I would like to go over the bell schedule. breakfast is a 6:00 sharp it goes until 7:00am. If you are late chances are the food will be cold or there will be none left to eat. If you come past seven you will have no breakfast. Classes start at 7:15, each class is 30 minutes long. You will have a fifteen minute break in between each class to do what you need to do. You will have five classes in the morning ending at 10:45 and then you will have a break to play, watch tv, do chores or homework and wait until lunch at 12:00pm. Lunch ends 1:00pm. Then it's back to afternoon classes. You have three afternoon classes, the last one ends at 3:15 - once again you will have free time to do whatever you need to do. If you behave well you may get to go on a field trip to the movies, concerts, or out to get ice cream. However if you misbehave you may lose free time. I'll explain more on that later. Dinner is at 6:00pm in Marliam hall. At 9;00 you are to be in your dorms at 10;00 it's lights out. We have nightly checks. Your dorms will be split based on your schedule and then the floor you are on will be based on your age. Younger kids get the bottom floor. Older kids are on the top. Now let's move on to the rules. You must wear your uniform while attending classes. After your last class if you wish to change you may, however, you may not wear shirts with inappropriate words and pictures and you may not sag your pants. You may not swear at any teachers, you may not back talk, you may not bully another student, you must not be late to class, you can only have three unexcused absences and after that you must have a nurses excuse. You may not have a cell phone in class. You may not interrupt a teacher. You may not have a tv or radio in your dorm room. If you are caught breaking any of the following you will get a demerit. If you receive three demerits then you will have lunch detention or after school detention. After that your slate will be wiped clean again. However, If it happens three times in one day you will be sent to my office. There will be no alcohol, smoking, or drugs. No physical fights with students or teachers are permitted. If you commit any of these violations you will be sent to my office. Understood?"

Most of the boys nodded.

"Good now in my office I will either take away your free time, make you do extra chores, sentence you to isolation, or more commonly corporal punishment."

Ashton cringed. Some of the guys near him snickered.

"I do not wish to see any of you there, but I know I will, I always do. Good luck. Professor Lash will now give you a tour of our school then you will have time to meet your roommates."

A chorus of "Thank yous" sounded around Ashton so he said thank you but he was a little late and everyone was staring at him.

Professor Lash led the chatting boys out of the principals office. She stood with them in front of the door to the building.

"We are currently in Marliam Hall." The woman said, "this is where the cafeteria is, the game room, music room, principals and nurses office is." She walked out of the building and down a sidewalk path over to another fairly large building. "This is Marble Hall, where your English, art, history, and music classes will be."

She continued to walk down the side walk to a small set of stairs. Once they walked up she led them into the building.

"This is Oak hall where your Math and Science classes will be."

She walked out the back of the building and over the side walk to another place.

"This is Coral Hall where your gym, French, and study hall classes will be held."

She led the boys into a class room where kids were seated. The teacher was rambling on and the students all looked bored. Most of them were resting their heads on tables. When they walked in, the students sat up and glared at them.

"Professor Doe, may I interrupt for a second?" Lash asked a short man with greasy blonde hair and a chubby belly.

"Sure, Mrs. Lash."

"Students this is what a typical class looks like. You might be mixed with other grades." Mrs. Lash explained. Ashton looked around at the many faces he would soon get to know. A kid with a Mohawk stood out as well as a kid with tattoos all over his body. Ashton felt his heart flutter, he was not cut out for a place like this.

Mrs. lash led the new students down the hall over to another room. It appeared to be a guidance counselors room. She picked up a stack of papers and began calling our names. After a few minutes, Ashton realized that she was handing out schedules.

"Brandon Conley, Ashton Irwin." Upon hearing his name, Ashton rushed to get his schedule and accidentally knocked into that Brandon kid.

"Watch were your going, blondie." He shouted to Ashton, giving him a small shove. It's official, Ashton felt the urge to vomit. He looked down at his schedule to avoid eye contact with the other guy.

Soon the kids migrated out of that building and down the stairs to another set of buildings all linked together.

Professor Lash led them inside Valhall and explained that this is where Ashton would be staying based on his schedule. The youngest students are on the bottom floor. You are on the second floor, room 14."

"Thank you." Ashton said gripping his bag tightly around his arm and heading over to the staircase.

He found room 14 and swiped his key card. The lock turned green and he opened it. As soon as he entered he saw a small black couch that could fit two people, a lamp on the table beside it and a TV in front of it. There was a red and white pillow on the couch and a white blanket tossed on the couch as if someone was just under it. The room was larger than Ashton thought it would be. He didn't expect to see the couch there. He also didn't expect the room to smell like wild life and look disorganized. Scattered across the wooden table in front of the couch was wrappers of all different sorts, mainly kit-Kats. Water bottles flooded the table along with clothes and a pile of papers which Ashton assumed was school work. As he walked in a little further he could see a bunk bed to the right of the couch. There on the bottom bunk was a boy with black fluffy, tousled hair, a white disheveled tank top with a design on it that Ashton couldn't make out, and black skinny jeans. He had a couple of bracelets on his arm as he typed away on his white Apple laptop.

"Hi." Ashton said weakly, not sure why his voice sounded five octaves higher than normal.

The relaxed, tan boy looked up from his computer with wide eyes.

"You're not Luke." He said subconsciously before immediately growling, "who are you?"

"I'm your roommate." Ashton squeaked, backing up a few steps only to hit into the wooden table. He hissed and rubbed at his leg.

"No. No no no no no." Calum said, suddenly. He bolted up, tossing his laptop to the side. "This isn't right." He said, "You're not suppose to be here."

"Is this room 14?" Ashton asked again, nervously although he was certain that it was. The tan boy didn't look dangerous, in fact his disposition seemed friendly, nevertheless he was obviously upset about something Ashton did. It figures: life hates Ashton.

"Yeah, this is room 14. But it's my room. Not yours, so you should get going." Calum gestured towards the door. Ashton smiled weakly, "the teacher said this is my room." He shrugged as if it would make the situation better. To make matters peaceful Ashton added a quick, "I'm sorry."

"What teacher?"

"Her name was Mrs. Lash." Ashton offered.

Calum scowled, "figures." He bit out. "I asked her if I could have a different room mate and she denied me him because he's too young so now she gave me you instead." Ashton bit his lip. This was awkward.  
Calum threw his hands up and exclaimed, "Great, now I'll never get the roommate I want."

Ashton frowned, "I'm sorry."   
Why couldn't he say anything else? It's like 'I'm sorry' was the only thing he could honestly think to say. He could ask the boy who this roommate was, but he didn't want to make him angrier. He could ask to switch rooms but he didn't want to cause a teacher any trouble.

"No, I'm sorry for flipping out." The tan boy said, offering him a small smile, "I'm Calum, by the way, what's your name."

"Ashton."

"Cool. Like Ashton Kutcher." Calum joked, rubbing his neck in an attempt to divert the awkward tension.

Just then the door opened and a tall skinny blonde boy, with blonde hair that stood up an inch in the sky, walked in babbling his head off.

"Hey Calum I brought the medicine and I was thinking we should watch -" the boy halted. Frozen with shock when his baby blue eyes landed on Ashton's hazel ones. He swore he could see something flicker in the blue irises like a glint of terror for a few seconds.

"Luke, it's alright, this is Ashton, my new roommate." Calum muttered the last part as he walked over to the tall boy with a black t-shirt, printed picture of a wolf on it and a red flannel over top of it. His black skinny jeans had a hole in both kneecaps. He was wearing black vans shoes and his legs were turned inward. Ashton watched as Calum wrapped his arm around Luke's neck.

"This is Luke. He will be staying over here a lot. If you don't like it, I suggest talking to Mrs. lash about finding a new roommate."

Luke smiled at Ashton, his dimples outlining his soft features. "Hi, I'm Luke." He said dumbly.

"I'm Ashton." The curly blonde responded out of politeness. Luke had the most awkward smile after that. It turned from adorable to uncomfortable.

"Here Calum." He whispered handing the tan boy a bottle of pills.

"What's that?" Ashton asked, daring to be nosy. Hopefully his new roommate wasn't a druggie.

"Medicine." Calum said rolling his eyes.

"Cal, be nice." Luke insisted. "Calum got in trouble today." He said shyly.

"Shut it, Luke." Calum took his arm and pushed him back.

Luke was smiling wickedly at Calum, giggling as the boy's face turned red.

"I talked back to a teacher today." He explained, looking at the floor with a deep blush splashed across his cheeks. "it was my third time today."

"He got paddled." Luke informed, smiling at Calum until he poked his side.

"Shut up, Lucas." Calum shouted, but there was a smile on his face a mile long. Ashton could tell without a second glance that these two were best friends. Not knowing what to say about the whole 'paddling' thing, Ashton gave them a wide, awkward smile and started to unpack.

Apparently it began to dawn on Calum that Ashton really was staying here because he said to Luke, "Hey if he takes your bunk, Where will you sleep?"

"I'm suppose to be in my dorm anyway." Luke replied, shrugging. "It's fine, Cal, we can still hang out."

"Well this is just great. Now I have to get to know a stranger."

"I can hear you." Ashton said, turning towards the two boys.

Luke looked sheepishly at his hands while Calum smiled widely. "Sorry mate." His voice was thick in sarcasm and Ashton knew he was anything but sorry.

"What bunk is mine?"

"I don't know, cause the bottom bunk is mine and the top bunk is Luke's so..."

"So the top bunk." Ashton said with an equally sassy tone.

"No. I just said that's Luke's bunk."

"Calum chill. It's fine." Luke said, trying to defuse the tense situation.

"He's not even your roommate, he can't sleep here." Ashton explained, wondering why Luke even slept here in the first place. It's against the rules. "What do you guys do? Break all of the rules?" Ashton asked beginning to think he was doomed. It seemed like these two were extreme rule breakers and all Ashton wanted was to get through this school year without being punished.

"We're not rule breakers." Calum laughed.

"Then why's there a TV in your dorm? The headmaster said we aren't allowed to have TV's in our dorms."

"Oh that's just Feldmanns first day warning." Calum explained, throwing his hand down, "I convinced him into letting me keep a TV up here."

"How'd you that?"

"I have ways." Calum smirked. "Anyway, what does it matter to you if I'm trouble?"

"Bro, you might be okay with ass beatings, but I'm not in the mood to see what one feels like."

"It's not that bad." Calum shrugged. "But I get it. You don't want to get in trouble because you're scared."

"I'm not scared." Ashton defended.

"Oh? What would you call it then?" Calum countered.

"I don't know," Ashton said sassily, "wisdom?"

"Wisdom?" Calum scoffed.

"Being good is smart." Ashton replied.

"Also boring."

"I can live with that."

"I can't."

Ashton and Calum glared at each other. Yep, life was unfair. The bell rang throughout the school indicating it was dinner time.

This should be interesting. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every bad situation has something positive.

As soon as the bell for dinner rang Luke and Calum bolted out of the room like wild horses. Standing in place, Ashton's mouth dropped open as he watched a ton of kids rush past his room, down the hall, like a herd of cattle. Regaining his focus, Ashton quickly took off down the hall to catch up with his new roommate, Calum, and that boy named Luke.

"Guys, wait up." Ashton screamed throughout the crowd of chattering boys. He bumped into a bunch of people, apologizing as he pushed forward to reach his new friends. A kid with black hair and glasses knocked into him, nearly taking Ashton to the ground.

"Sorry." The geek mumbled, pushing his glasses up his nose.

Ashton ignored the boy and continued to move forward until he was next to the white tank top boy with dark hair. Calum chuckled, "keep up." He muttered tugging Ashton by his wrist down the stair case. At the bottom they managed to make it out the doors with a pack of boys on each side of them. Finally, they were free in the fresh air of the outdoors. Calum and Luke were sprinting down the sidewalk making Ashton lose his breath.

"What's the rush?" Ashton yelled as he caught up to the boys.

"Gotta get there before everyone else takes the good food." Luke explained. "Besides its good exercise."

Ashton couldn't argue with that logic. He ran along the sidewalk until he reached the brick building called the Marliam. Inside, he was met with a spacious cafeteria room. His eyes wondered to a few boys laughing at a white table in the corner. It suddenly became an anxious feeling that he would have to sit with someone. He looked around for an empty table, but he saw Calum and Luke going to the middle of the cafeteria where he assumed the lunch line was. Reluctantly, Ashton followed them. Black trays were placed on a table in front of a long line of food and lunch ladies.

Luke walked up to a woman and gave her a warm smile, "hello Julie." He said holding out his tray. The woman placed a plate of hamburgers and French fries on his tray and said, "hi there, Lukey. How are you?"

"I'm good." He replied, dimples showing as his pearly whites glistened.

Julie, the lunch lady, with short black hair and bangs pulled out a milkshake from the freezer and handed it to Luke. "Have a great day, sweetheart."

"Thank you, Julie." Luke politely said as he took himself and his tray over to a white round table. Ashton looked at a different, fairly large woman named Georgia who handed him a soggy hamburger and two fries.

"thank you." he gritted out. Either she could tell his smile was fake or his smile was shit, either way the woman just grunted at him and he quickly moved over to the table where Luke and Calum were at.

"What are you doing?" Calum asked indignantly.

"Sitting, what does it look like I'm doing."

"No way, bro. It's bad enough your stealing my room, but now you wanna steal my lunch table too" Calum yelped in pain as Luke's foot collided with his shin.

"Calum. Let him sit here." Luke coaxed.

Calum held his hands up in defeat. "Fine."

Ashton gave Luke an apprecitive glance, mouthing the words, "thank you." The boy simply nodded.

In order to keep the awkward silence away from them, Ashton decided to start a conversation. "My hamburger is dripping wet with grease."

Calum snickered, "yeah, that's because you didn't get it from Julie."

"She's the nicest lunch lady ever." Luke clarified.

"Oh yeah, I see she gave you a milkshake." Ashton explained pointing to the chocolate shake with whip cream and a cherry on top. Luke looked at it and blushed.

"That's because Julie loves Luke," Calum explained, "hell, every teacher loves Luke."

"Not every teacher." Luke mumbled eyes focused on his shake. Ashton noticed something in his blue eyes flicker. It might have been a twinkle of embarrassment? Or maybe something else...

"Pretty much everyone," Calum continued as he chomped down on his burger, "but basically if you want a good lunch go to Julie."

"Thanks for the tip." Ashton said. He was dabbing his burger with a napkin to get the grease off.

"Can you pass the tomato sauce?" Luke asked.

Ashton looked at the bottle of red next to him on the table. "You mean the ketchup?"

"Yeah, ketchup." Luke said, holding his hand out. Ashton passed him the glass bottle and Luke poured the sauce all over his plate. He proceeded to pick up his hamburger and dip it in the ketchup along with a few fries.

"So," it was Calum's voice that snapped him away from his staring at Luke, "what's your schedule like?"

"Oh." Ashton hadn't thought much about his schedule since he met his new roommate. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a crinkled piece of paper.

"I have English first, then math, history, music, science. Lunch. Study hall/gym, French, and art."

When he finished reading off his list he looked up to see Calum nodding his head. "Luke and I have English 1st period as well. Is it in room 238?"

"Yeah, in Marble Hall?" Ashton asked.

"Yep." Calum said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"You're welcome to meet up with me tomorrow." Luke said earning him a glare from his buddy Calum.

Shrinking back in his chair slightly, Luke whispered, "He can follow you, Cal."

"That's our thing." Calum sighed and reluctantly agreed. "but I guess since we have first period together we could both meet you outside your dorm."

"Awesome." Ashton said to the two best friends.

Just then a kid with stark red hair, a black snapback and an Ozzy Ozbourne shirt walked in a took Luke's milkshake.

"Bro, you better give that back." Calum shouted, standing up to meet this guys height.

"Make me." The red head sassed, getting close and personal to Calum's face.

"Get out of here." Calum muttered, sitting down defeatedly.

Watching with his mouth wide open, Ashton couldn't believe what just happened. He noticed the red haired boy walked over to the dark corner of the cafeteria with Luke's milkshake and sat by himself. "Who was that?"

"Michael Clifford." Calum spat, "that guys a punk. He acts all tough and picks on Luke but then he goes and sits alone at lunch. It doesn't surprise me he has no friends. The way he acts, I'd be surprised if anyone cared about his ass."

"What does he do?" Ashton asked.

"You mean other than pick on Luke? He like, never comes to class. He never talks to anyone and when he does it's never nice. He thinks he's tough and that's all there is to know about the guy."

"Wow. He sounds troubled." Ashton remarked, stealing another glance at the boy with red dyed hair.

"He is." Calum said, shaking his head.

"He has nice style though." Ashton admitted. Calum did not look pleased. Shrugging, Ashton watched Luke demolished his juicy hamburger in seconds; He was impressed.

"So what do you guys do after dinner?" Ashton asked, wondering how he could ever do anything fun in this place.

Luke and Calum glanced at eachother as if asking 'should we tell him.'

"Why do you want to know?" Calum jibed.   
With the shrug of his shoulder, Luke turned to Ashton saying, "we usually hang out in the music room."

Ashton's eyes widened, a smile creeped on his face in the form of a blush. "Music room?"

"Yeah. There's one here in the Marliam. But sometimes we just hang out in our rooms playing music."

Calum gave Luke a small nudge, Ashton assumed it was an indication to stop talking about their special places.

"What type of music do you guys listen to?"

Ashton's question lit a spark in Luke's eyes. His mouth took off in a babble of things with that small Australian accent and uniquely thick, deep, voice.

"Well, I've been in the room with Calum this week and it's just been like a week of Chris Brown. Oh! But I love listening to Blink 182, Good Charlotte, and Nickelback."

Ashton scoffed, "Nickelback?"

Pouting Luke said, "why does everyone always say that? You know what, I have a problem with the world."

"Oh do you?" Ashton chuckled. This was the first time he could actually hear Luke's voice at a normal level of volume.

"Yes. Not enough people like nickelback."

"I'll tell the police." Calum said, giggling into his hamburger. Luke rolled his eyes.

"What songs were you going to listen to?" Ashton asked.

"Why do you care?" Calum shot back.

"More than a feeling, How you remind me, anyway you want it." Luke rattled off songs until Calum covered his mouth with his hand. "Hush." He whispered.

"We actually weren't planning on listening to any music tonight." Calum explained, his hand still over Luke's mouth.

"What are you going to do after dinner then?" Ashton asked, hoping maybe he could tag along with the boys. However Calum's annoyed expressions told Ashton he needs back off a little.

"We were going to watch the Liverpool game." Luke said after he shoved Calum's hand off of him. Panting from the extraneous effort, Luke went back to playing with the straw in Calum's coke-a-cola

Ashton nodded, "oh. I like playing soccer but I can't watch it."

Calum smirked, "aw is that so? That's too bad."

He grunted in pain as Luke's hand collided with the back of his head.

"Calum!" Luke protested, "be nice."

"Does that make you like me less?" Ashton asked, sipping a cup of coke-a-cola.

"Why would that make me like you less?" Calum asked with his unique high pitched voice.

Ashton thought these two guys were very interesting. Luke had all the qualities of a mature student. He was well mannered, kind, and had a deeper voice than Calum. Not to mention Luke was a few inches taller than Ashton. If that's all Ashton saw he would think Luke was older. But that's not all Ashton noticed, he also noticed that Luke is quiet, shy, nervous, pale as a ghost and very clingy to Calum. Ashton saw how close the two friends were sitting together. Luke was practically attached to Calum's hip. The blonde was super friendly, with beautiful blue eyes - that flicker with something every now and then- and a great taste in music. Then there was Calum, who was drastically different than Luke in every way. He was shorter, with black hair, and a higher pitched voice. His eye color is dark brown, ethnicity a tan type of New Zealand or Hawaiian, Ashton wasn't sure which. Then there was the protective vibe he gave off. His arm always slouched around Luke. He was ready to fight Michael Clifford the first chance he had. He was the talkative one. Ashton wondered with all the differences they shared how the two of them could possibly be friends.

Though Luke's shoulders were broad, he sat hunched in on himself, making his shoulders small with his hand holding his arm nervously. Ashton wondered why the boy looked so nervous all the time. Maybe it's because Ashton is so loud. His parents always told him he needed to talk with an 'Inside' voice. That's something he never truly mastered.

The bell rang again, and the boys groaned, standing up to throw their trays away.

Back in Valhall, Ashton started to unpack all of his clothes and shove them into drawers while Luke and Calum sat on the couch screaming at the TV. There was music blaring in the background making Ashton have a split headache from all the stress his new roommate was causing him.

"Who the hell plays music while watching TV?" Ashton asked the two boys who were laying on top of each other.

"Us." Calum remarked.

"Isn't this like a violation?" Ashton asked, putting a hand on his hip.

"No bro." Luke said his eyes never leaving the screen.

Ashton sat back on his bunk and listened to the game that he hated. How was he going to survive this nightmare. His eyes drifted out the window only to see that the window had bars on it. Tears welled up in Ashton's eyes, but he quickly blinked them away.

"I have to go." He heard Luke whisper to Calum, his voice choked up as well.

"It's gonna be okay, Luke." Calum said giving the boy a hug. "If you need anything, come to my room okay?"

Luke nodded, then left the room with that flicker in his eye.

Suddenly the room felt lonely. The absence of Calum's friend allowed awkward moments of tension to slip in. Calum shut the TV off along with his favorite music then walked into the bathroom. "I'm gonna brush my teeth." He said. Ashton jumped at the opportunity to get to know Calum.

"Ok. I'll brush mine too."

"Bro, we can't both fit in this tiny bathroom."

"Sure we can." Ashton said squeezing in next to Calum. The tan boy was crammed in the tight space between Ashton and the shower, making him feel very uncomfortable.

He wet his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth. Ashton did the same, rhythmically timing it with Calum. Their eyes occasionally glanced at each other from the side. But they mainly stared at the mirror.

Once Calum spit Ashton waited then spit too.

"Thank God. For a second I thought you were going to spit in my hair." Calum complained.

"What was that thing about Luke?" Ashton asked as he walked over to his bunk.

"What thing?"

"You know, the whole, 'you can come to my room if you need to.'"

"I was telling Luke he could come to my room, that's all."

"but why?"

"It's nothing." Calum muttered hoping onto the bottom bunk.

"Is he okay? I mean you made it sound like something bad -"

"Drop it!" Calum shouted, standing up to look at Ashton. "Just. Drop it."

Ashton took one look at the stern face and decided he better let it go. Silently, he climbed to the top bunk and laid down closing his eyes.

At least he can escape this place in his dreams.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.

Morning arrived faster than Ashton wanted it to. He nearly fell out of bed when the ear piercing bell rang throughout his room. Considering he was in the top bunk, Ashton thanked God he didn't fall flat on his face.

"Come on, mate, Breakfast is served at 6:00am." Calum said, buttoning his white dress shirt up. He had black skinny pants on, and a buttoned up white shirt with a striped tie. Then he tossed a maroon blazer over his shirt.

"It's _so_ fucking early." Ashton groaned.

"Get use to it." Calum muttered, tossing clothes at Ashton's face. "Come on, get dressed we need to go down stairs to meet Luke."

"Why?" Ashton sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes.

"Cause I always meet Luke in his dorm room every morning. If you want to hang with us, you better hurry up."

"Why can't Luke just meet you at breakfast?"

"Cause I usually have to wake the damn kid up."

"Kid?" Ashton asked raising and eyebrow, "you mean that giant is younger than us?"

"He's fifteen, and he is not a giant. He's tall but have you seen his face? It's the babiest face in the entire school I swear." Calum said watching as Ashton hopped down from his bunk.

Ashton grumbled something along the lines of wait a minute as he went into the tiny bathroom to change.

"Bro, it's too small in there. You're gonna want to change out here from now on." Calum advised.

Ashton just met Calum yesterday. There was no way in hell that he was going to strip naked in front of him. "I'll make it work."

"Suit yourself." Calum shrugged laughing when he heard Ashton bang his head off of a shelf in the tiny bathroom.

When Ashton exited the bathroom he had on the exact same outfit as Calum except he had a bandana in his hair. Smiling, Calum shook his head.

"Alright let's go." He said walking to the door.

The boys walked across their hallway and down the first set of steps. There, on the bottom floor, was the doorway out of the building and a hall to other dorm rooms. Ashton followed Calum down the hall, stopping as suddenly as Calum did. The unexpected stop pushed Ashton into Calum's back.

"Dude, watch it." Calum yelled, straighten his blazer.

"Sorry." Ashton said, even though he wanted to tell Calum it was his fault for stopping so abruptly.

Calum rolled his eyes and knocked on Luke's door. It took a good three minutes for the boy to open up.

"I'm tired." Luke said as he opened the door. "Why can't it still be winter break." he pouted the best pout Ashton's ever seen. Calum was right, Luke definitely had a young face.

"Are you ready?" Calum asked the boy dressed in blue briefs and a white tank top.

"Do I look ready?" Luke asked sassily.

"Then hurry up, Ashton is starving." Calum yelled, "I can feel him breathing on me. I think he wants to eat me!"

Ashton could hear Luke's loud laugh from inside the room. It was high pitched for Luke, but adorable. At that moment, Ashton decide he wanted to hear Luke laugh everyday. The way Calum could be so happy and sweet around Luke was priceless. He definitely liked this dynamic duo together.

"I'm ready." Luke sang, closing the door behind him. He had the same maroon blazer and white dress shirt but Luke had a black backpack strap hanging over his shoulders. Normally Ashton would have a backpack too, but it was the first day of classes. Would he need one? He frantically looked to Calum only to notice that he did not have a backpack either. It must just be how Luke is: consciousness.

The three of them headed out into the chilly morning air where the sun has not yet risen. They walked inside the Marliam and took a seat at their favorite white table, even the chairs were white. But the room itself had dark brown walls and golden brass paintings hanging on them.

"Remember to ask Julie for your breakfast." Luke reminded him. Ashton nodded, "thanks for the reminder."

Julie, with short black hair and bangs, smiled at Ashton. "Hello." She said with a Chinese accent.

"Hello." Ashton smiled courteously.

"Waffles or Pancakes?" She asked pointing to the two options.

"Pancakes please." Julie nodded and filled his plate with three pancakes, a pad of butter, and a pile of maple syrup.

"Thank you." Ashton smiled. He went over to the side table and grabbed a fruit cup. He noticed Luke had grabbed bacon, sausage, hash browns, and a fruit cup to go along with his pancakes.

"That's a lot of food you got there." Ashton teased.

Luke's face flushed red, "I'm a growing boy." He defended.

"I'm just messing with you. This looks really good." Ashton said as he walked to the table and sat down.

Calum came over with his tray of pancakes as well. No waffles today. "Alright, so you have English with Luke and I first period. Listen, the teacher, Mr. Frey, is pretty cool." Calum explained. "But don't be late to his class."

"Yeah, it really pisses him off for some reason." Luke said, shaking his head in annoyance.

"I take it you two have been late before?"

"Bro, his class is at 7:15 in the morning, of course we've been late." Calum said with a face full of pancakes.

"Oh I'm sorry." Ashton smirked.

The bell to end Breakfast came way too fast. Ashton stood up with his two friends and tossed his tray. They walked out of Marliam and over to Marble Hall.

Finally the butterflies were starting to flutter in Ashton's stomach as he walked into the large marble building. If he didn't have Calum and Luke by his side, Ashton was sure he would throw up from nerves. Luke must have noticed Ashton's shaky hands or his terrified facial expressions because he slipped his arm over Ashton's shoulder.

"You'll be okay." He whispered. Ashton smiled weakly. He wanted to believe the tall blonde but his gut feeling was screaming, 'you're not okay!'

Calum opened the door to room 238. This is it. The end of the world. Calum and Luke walked into a semi large classroom with white walls and honey brown desks only to sit in the third row.

Ashton scanned the room as he walked to the seat near Calum. One kid had a sliver earring in his right ear. Another kid had a green Mohawk. One boy was sitting all alone in the back with his head buried in a book. Michael Clifford sat in the back of the room with headphones in. His non-caring attitude could be felt from miles away. There was a boy with quiffed brown hair and vibrant brown eyes. He had a notebook ready to go, but his relaxed body mannerisms spoke volumes. This kid was a 'popular' one, which made Ashton's skin crawl with nerves. Ashton quickly sat by Calum and Luke trying to appear cool. They were both giving him reassuring smiles but Ashton could feel his heart in his throat.

When the teacher walked in, the quiet class grew even more silent. Mr. Frey had a dark brown suitcase, a light blue dress shirt and a dark blue tie. He had grey slacks, a brown beard, and warm face that looks similar to Ryan Gosling.

"Hello students." He said, placing his brief case down at his desk and pulling out a bunch of papers.

"This is our syllabus for the next semester." He said passing it out to people in the first column. They proceeded to pass it back. "As you can see we will be discussing various types of literature and poems. Most of the readings will be short stories or poems. I will provide you with the materials but you are expected to read it before class is that understood?"

"Yes sir." The boy with brown hair said. A few kids beside him said the same. Most kids snickered or groaned.

"Is there a problem?"

The kid with slicked back blonde hair, and icy blue eyes spoke up, "we is here cause we is 'problematic' and disobedient. What makes you think we gonna listen to you?"

"Ah, Mr. Timothy Thomson -"

"Call me Tucker."

"Very well, Tucker, so long as we're doing introductions I am Professor Frey, you may call me Mr, or Sir, or just Frey."

The class nodded and the teacher continued, "So, Tucker, let me see if I get this right, you think you were brought here because you are 'problematic?"

"That's right."

"What's that mean?" Mr. Frey asked, leaning back on his desk.

"It means we is trouble."

"Trouble? Well I've been in trouble before and I never went to this school?" Mr. Frey said innocently.

"Well, we is worse." The boy explained.

"How so?"

The boy seemed to be frustrated, he was struggling for words. Another kid, one with slicked black hair and warm brown eyes said, "we break laws, or we can't behave in society. Or better yet, we have parents that don't give a damn about us which is why we're here. We're all a bunch of bad asses and losers who don't care."

"Ah! Mr. Max Mallony. You hit the nail on the head!" Professor Frey shouted, startling the sleepy class. "You claim you are bad. That this school is for 'bad' kids. Is that right?"

Most students nodded including Ashton. Honestly, Ashton wasn't a bad kid but he figured this school was made for delinquents. Some of these people gave him goosebumps just looking at them. He stopped nodding, however, when he saw Calum's disgusted look and Luke's puppy eyes seemed wounded. Scratching the back of his head, Ashton felt the sudden need to apologize to both of his friends who probably hate him now.

"Well I'm here to tell you that in this classroom there are no bad kids." Mr. Frey continued. To be honest, that caught Ashton off guard, "When you enter this room you enter my world. And as Lansbury once said, 'in my world there are no bad kids. Just impressionable conflicted young people wrestling with emotions and impulses, trying to communicate their feelings and needs in the only way they know how.' That is the way I will look at you. Yes there are bad choices, yes there a bad days, and yes there are bad situations but there are no bad people."

From that speech, Ashton could tell this man was a skilled English major that's for sure.

"Do you honestly believe that, Mr. Frey?" asked Max. He was leaning back in his seat waiting for an answer with a sly smile on his face.

"I honestly do."

"What about psychos? People born with serve mental disorders? You don't think they're bad?"

"I don't. I think they were born with a deficit as many people are. Some people are born deaf, some are born blind, and some are born without any emotions. Does it make them bad?"

"It does when they murder things."

"Ah, but that is a choice they made. As I said before: there are bad choices and bad situations, but never bad people."

"So, you think we have potential?" Tucker asked.

"I know you do." He said enthusiastically, "But you have to prove it to me. Read Chapter 1 in your reading packet tonight and we will discuss it in class tomorrow. For the rest of today I would like to discuss a little bit about the author of this poem."

  
When class ended, Ashton and Luke went off to Oak hall to go to Math class. "She's kinda strict, but not too bad." Luke said to Ashton as they walked to Mrs. lash's class.   
The woman held a stern glare as all of the students walked in. She had blonde hair to her shoulders and a thin figure. Her nose was pointy, but other than that she was quite beautiful. Ashton already met her on the first day. She was the one who gave him the tour of the school. He was hoping she would crack him a smile, but the woman seemed very strict. She held a flexible cane in her hand as she walked around the classroom.

Ashton and Luke sat at the same table together. Leaning in, Ashton whispered in Luke's ear, "I thought you said she's alright."

"She is. But I told you she's strict."

"No shit, she has a cane Luke!"

"All teachers do, it's a correctional boarding school, Ashton." Luke whispered sassily.

"Does they actually hit us with those things?"

Luke nodded but sympathetically put his hand on Ashton's shoulder when the boy started breathing heavily.

"Relax, it's only a tap on your hand. Besides she never usually uses it."

"She ever use it on you?" Ashton asked searching Luke's eyes for the truth.

Luke shook his head "Not Mrs. Lash."

"Someone else? Who?"

Ashton flinched violently along with Luke as the cane connected with their desk.

"Class has started Mr. Irwin."

"I'm sorry." Ashton squeaked face bright red in embarrassment.

"Students when class starts you are expected to be seated and silent. If you choose to break my classroom rules I will demerit you or swat your hand with this cane is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am." The whole class chorused including red faced Ashton.

"Good." She turned to Luke and said, "good to see you again, Luke. I hope you can be my tutor again this year?"

"Yes ma'am I can". He said smiling. Ashton glared at him.

"What?" Luke shrugged. Ashton rolled his eyes, "you could've told me you were in cahoots with Mrs. Lash."

"First of all, no one says cahoots and secondly, I'm not in cahoots, I've just been helping her teach struggling students."

"You're good at math?" Ashton scoffed.

"Yeah." It's was Luke's turn to go red in the face, especially when Ashton started laughing at him.

"Now students, I would like to explain the golden star system we have incase any of you forgot and so our new student, Ashton, can learn about it."

Now she was just singling him out. Ashton slouched down in his seat feeling the weight of the classroom eyes on him.

"Our Golden star rule is every time you complete a chore you will be given a star. Twenty stars and you can have a family day, a trip outside for icecream, dinner, or a sports game. A chore list will be posted in your dorm room today after Lunch. Any questions?"

No one cared so there were no questions.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Learn as if you were to live forever.

When Math class finally ended Ashton, happily booked it out of the building. His first day took a terrible turn in Math Class when Mrs. Lash scolded him for speaking while class was in session. Now, it was time for third period History class and Ashton wanted to be anywhere but there. Home sounded like the best option but he knew he couldn't do that without the police sending him to juvey so his dorm room was the second best option. But Luke informed Ashton that Calum would be in his history class even though Luke won't be there because he has French class. The kid seemed nervous about going to French class which concerned Ashton. Luke's worried face was a sad one. His forehead would crinkle, his eyes would fade, darkened by a secret burden. 

"Honestly Ashton, you'll be fine. Mr. Kali is super nice." Luke said, voice deep and raspy. Skipping a few paces, Ashton caught up to Luke. He grabbed his younger friends arm spinning him around, "what's got you so shaken up? You're practically running away from me." 

"Nothing." Luke yelped nearly terrified. He instantly pulled his arm back in a reflex. Cradling it with his other hand. Ashton's mouth gaped open. Luke glared at him. "I'm just hurrying so I can get some coffee before class." He answer in a heartbeat. 

"You have coffee here?"

"We have a coffee house. It's supposed to be secluded to seniors only but Julie gave me a key card." 

"Why?"

"Cause she did. I don't know, just go back to Marble Hall before you're late." Luke insisted. 

"Fine. You better get to class yourself." Ashton said as he parted with Luke. Back down at Marble Hall, Ashton found his History room. There were already some familiar faces. That good kid for instance, with the brown hair and eyes. The kid with slicked black hair sat in there with his feet on the table. If Ashton remembers correctly his name is Dallas. Then there were these other boys surrounding this blonde kid with short flat hair. Ashton knew he was a popular kid, he called it! In the far right, Calum was sitting talking to a short boy with holes in his pants and beat up shoes. The kid smelled like B.O. which made it highly difficult for Ashton to sit by Calum, but he did so anyway. 

"Hey Ashton." 

"Hi. Who's you're friend?" Ashton asked, smiling at the strange smelly frail boy. 

"This is Danny."

"Hey Danny." Ashton said extending his arm to the boy, "I'm Ashton." 

"Hi." He said softly. 

Ashton turned to Calum and asked, "do you know why Luke was so freaked out to go to French?"

Calum furrowed his eyebrows. "Freaked out?" Calum asked then his eyes lit up, "oh, he was probably worried about seeing Michael Clifford."

"Why?" Danny asked, scratching the pimple on his chin. "Michael doesn't do anything. I mean sure the guys a total asshole, most people are, but he doesn't mess with anyone. He usually keeps to himself."

"Yeah, key word is 'usually' but when it comes to Luke, Michael is the first person who will pick a fight with him." Calum explained. 

"But Luke's like the sweetest kid in the school." Dirtbag Danny said. 

"I know. It doesn't make sense, but Michael's never been one to make sense to me. Like why would you never come to class? Does he want to fail?" Calum asked. 

"He's here today." Ashton piped in. 

"Watch how long that lasts." Calum muttered. 

"Hello Students." A bald teacher walked in at a face pace, tossing his briefcase on the table then addressing the class. "My name is Mr. Kali, I will be your history teacher." 

Throughout the class, Mr. Kali was vibrant, loud and energetic. Ashton scribbled as many notes as possible before leaving class. 

"Does he always teach that fast?" Ashton asked Calum. 

"Yep, and he's always that loud too." Calum responded. They walked into the glass lounge area of Marble Hall where the doors were. Both, Ashton and Calum had music class in fifteen minutes which made Ashton anxious to get there. He wanted to make it on time. But Calum insisted they wait by the doors for their younger friend. 

"He won't be long, just relax." Calum said noticing Ashton's constant pacing. 

"We need to get to class."

"We have fifteen minutes, chill." Calum said. He leaned his head back against the wall and pulled out his cell phone. 

"Actually, we have twelve minutes and forty eight seconds." Ashton stared intently at his watch. 

Calum glanced up from his phone to give Ashton a dirty look. "Seriously?"

"There's nothing wrong with being punctual." Even Ashton knew that sounded stupid, so when Calum laughed he did too. It felt good to have someone laugh with him. It's like Calum's voice blended with his perfectly. Being the black sheep of his family, Ashton never heard laughter very often. In fact, it was rare if anyone in his family would even converse with him. That's what was different about Calum. He actually wanted to talk to Ashton. Even if he felt forced because they were roommates he offered to let Ashton follow him around all day and for that Ashton is grateful. It felt so easy to talk to Calum. Pushing open the glass door, Luke walked in with an arm full of books. 

"Did you go to the book store already?" Calum asked. Grabbing a few books out of Luke's hands, Calum helped the younger boy carry his load. 

"Yeah." Luke huffed, catching his breath. "Sorry if I'm a little late. I know it's your first day, Ashton, so I tried to be really quick." Luke said, eyes shining. This is what Ashton loved about Luke. The kid was so considerate, thoughtful and sweet. From the moment they met, Luke had done nothing but make Ashton feel welcome. Talking to Luke was like talking to a childhood friend. 

"No worries, I know we have plenty of time." Ashton said. Calum snorted then leaned into Luke's ear and whispered, "he was about to have a mini panic attack if you didn't show up in the next two seconds." 

Luke giggled, a sound that made Ashton laugh too. To Ashton's surprise, Luke and him harmonize just as well. 

"It's alright, Ashton, I was worried about being late to class on my first day, too. I think everyone does." Luke said, warmly. His smile inviting Ashton to smile too. 

"I wasn't worried." Calum boasted, somehow puffing his chest out without looking like a dork. Luke rolled his eyes, patting Calum's chest.   
"Well everyone but, Cal, here." 

The boys stopped walking to open the classroom door. Inside Ashton couldn't believe what he saw. First of all, the chairs were set up in a circle, second the walls had posters all over them - each one with a musician or instrument on it - and thirdly their were guitars, drums, and flutes all across the room. 

"Wow." Ashton said following Calum and Luke to a chair. He sat to the right of Calum. Luke was in between both of them when Michael Clifford walked in. Luke flinched as Michael smacked his head with a textbook. 

"Ow!" Luke yelped, hands rushing to aid his aching skull.

"Watch where your going, Clifford!" Calum shouted towards the rebellious looking teen. 

Luke grabbed Calum's wrist and gave him a pointed look. Obviously the two shared a conversation with their eyes because Calum leaned back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. 

"So Ashton..." Luke said, trying to change the subject, "you said you like music like Blink 182 and Nickelback, right?"

"Definitely."

"You should hang out with us tonight when we play some music." Luke suggested. 

Ashton smiled widely, "really? I'd love to."  
Luke smiled even wider considering Ashton was so excited. "Awesome."

"Hello class." The teacher said as he walked in. "I'm Mr. Day and I'll be you're music teacher. "

That popular boy with brown hair and eyes stood up and shook Mr. day's hand. 

"Brandon, it's good to see you again." Mr. Day said shaking his hand. 

"Class this is Brandon Simmerton, he is the all time winner of our musical competitions. The room gave Brandon a round of applause. Thankfully the boy took his seat after doing a few bows. 

"This year we will be doing a variety of things. You will learn how to play one instrument of your choice, you will learn how to sing music notes, and you will learn how to write music. You will be asked to write one music composition this year and perform it on music festival day. I'll explain that in a few minutes."

Ashton's blood pressure dropped severely as Mr. Day talked. He felt like a ghost as his eyes darted to Luke and Calum's faces. But They didn't look concerned at all which confused Ashton. 

"So class, you will be graded every Friday on a piece of music we do in class. I will be working with you all week preparing you for the small quiz on Friday. As for singing, you will be placed in small groups and asked to sing a song of your choice for homework. You may film the song and turn it in to me on a disc or upload it to my email. Your first homework assignment will be due on February 24th so you have plenty of time." 

The class nodded, Luke wrote the due date on top of his notes in huge letters. Ashton admired how sloppy the handwriting was because he wrote the same way: messy. 

"Alright, now to discuss the Music Festival. You will all have one large group project where you will perform at our Music Festival for a grade. As long as you perform in front of the audience you will get an automatic A. But you must perform something. There will be talent scouts there to watch you boys. If you wow them they may be your ticket out of this school. You could end up going to a prestigious Music School where you learn about music all day."

The entire feeling of the room changed. Ashton could feel the excitement radiating off of the boys faces, Ashton would be lying if he said he wasn't excited too. Luke turned to him with the cheeriest smile on his cheeks. 

"So today I just want to learn your names and maybe ask what your favorite songs are. Let's start with Brandon." Mr. Day said taking a step back. 

With a smug smile, Brandon stood up in the center of the circle like he owned the place. He acted as if he was the center of the universe and the world revolved around him. Combing his luscious locks out of his face, he said, "I'm sure you all know by now, I'm Brandon Simmerton and I won seventeen musical awards, performed in ten musicals, and auditioned for X factor last year. I'm passionate about music. I'm determined which is why I'm successful. I'm not scared to say I can achieve absolutely anything."

Mr. Day cleared his throat, "just a name and your favorite song will do, Brandon."

"Oh, sorry sir. Yes, my favorite song would have to be hard to handle by the Black Crowes." 

"Alright, thank you Mr. Simmerton. Next." The teacher said clasping his hands.   
Calum stood up, "hi I'm Calum I play the bass. I guess my favorite song at the moment is Jasey Rae by all time low." 

Calum sat down and Luke stood up, playing with the hem of his shirt he didn't bother to look up, "I'm Luke Hemmings and I like listening to the anthem two by Blink and I like the anthem by Good charlotte." He whispered. Mr. Day smiled at him, "so anything with the word Anthem." Mr. day joked, "I'll make a note of that. Thank you Luke."

When Luke sat down, Ashton shakily stood up, "um, hi I'm Ashton Irwin. I guess my favorite song right now is come as you are by Nirvana."

When Ashton sat down, Michael stood up. "I'm Michael, I like Teenagers by My Chemical Romance."

"Wow, guys these are all great songs. You do know that listening to profanity and vulgar language is prohibited in this school right?" He asked them. All the students nodded. Mr. Day smiled at them, "well I am allowing you to break the rules for this class. You may sing songs that are inappropriate because sometimes art is different. It's okay. But do not go around using that as an excuse to swear in all of your classes, understood." 

"Yes sir. Good. Class dismissed."

It's been an insane first day, but the sad part was it wasn't even half way over yet. Ashton and Luke were headed off to Oak hall for 5th period science class. Then they will finally have a break and eat Lunch. But After Lunch Ashton had to deal with three more classes. He groaned. 

This was a hard day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is enjoying so far. I know this story is just starting up. I apologize, it takes a little while before the main plot will come into play.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know it's hard right now, but you'll get through it somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a little while, but this chapter's pretty long. Hopefully it makes up for it. :) 
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and I hope you like it.

5th period science class was a drag, Ashton couldn't wait for it to end. The teacher was a young woman with red hair tied in an up tight bun nearly cutting off the circulation to her brain. She wore ten gallons of makeup but other than that she seemed okay, not Ashton's favorite teacher, that's for sure. He was starting to get the feeling that maybe all the women teachers carry canes around to feel stronger in front of all the muscular guys.

Luke didn't seem to like her either. In fact, Ashton's young friend had his eyes downcast all class long. Ashton could see something in his eyes again that resembled fear or nervousness. Maybe Luke suffers from anxiety? Ashton thought to himself as he watched Luke stride out of class with his long giraffe legs.

Finally, break had arrived. Ashton could do whatever he wanted for the next hour and fifteen minutes then he'd be forced to eat lunch. Nevertheless, lunch took up an hour so he actually had two hours of freedom. Even if it doesn't feel like freedom with barbed wire surrounding the school, Ashton could still use this time to his advantage.

He followed Luke from science class in Oak Hall back to Marliam.

"Why are we going to the cafeteria, it's not Lunch yet?" Ashton stated, trying to keep up with Luke's long legs.

"I know, but Cal and I always do our chores at this time." Luke informed him.

"So your chores aren't to clean your dorm rooms?" Ashton huffed as he caught up to Luke's side, "because trust me kid, Calum's place looks like a pig stein."

"Our chore list is posted on our dorm rooms so I asked Calum to pick them up since he's closest to Val Hall. That's we're going to Marliam to do the chores and get the stars."

"Who gives you the stars?"

"Your house leader or Feldman himself." Luke responded. He took a seat on the bench outside and Ashton reluctantly sat with him. Honestly he rather be laying in his dorm room watching TV.

"Are we waiting for Calum?" Ashton pondered.

"That's what I'm doing." Luke said staring straight ahead. For the first time Ashton could feel the soft breeze caress him and cool his body down. He realized that the sky was equally as beautiful here as it was at home. The mucky puddles and water splotches in the green blankets of grass splotched the hill top Ashton was looking at. It painted a nice picture he must say. The plush herbs and shrubs, not to mention, the beautiful soothing flowers reminded Ashton of a garden, rather than a prison. It made the school look less grimy in a beautiful manner.

"Luke. Is it worth it to get Gold stars?" Ashton asked after a few minutes of staring at the hill. The sun hit his face and it seemed to light up his perspective of this place. "Does this school really feel like home to you?"

Luke nodded, a strand of his blonde hair fell in his face and he pushed it back fixing it into his quiff. "It's home to me. But I can understand that it feels overwhelming at first." Luke said genuinely. "As for gold stars, Calum and I love getting them because he plays football or soccer or whatever you want to call it. Anyway the more gold stars we get the more games we can attend. Calum likes attending them because girls are there."

"Girls?" Ashton asked, he is constantly learning new things today, but this is the first truly interesting piece of information he has obtained since the day started.

"Yeah, there is a girls boarding school just across from our school. Anyway, they come to our games and we go to theirs, if we get gold stars that is. Some of them cheer, some of them play basketball, soccer, and some of them just sit in the bleachers. Most of them make out with guys all game." Luke explains.

Ashton laughed, "I can imagine that." Luke smiled along with Ashton making him feel relaxed. He truly appreciated that quality in Luke.

"But I like gold stars because I like going to concerts." Luke said shyly.

"Do you? I can see that?" Ashton lied. Truthfully he couldn't imagine his little shy friend jamming out but he wanted to make Luke feel good, and he knew it would make him smile, if he lied, which it did.

"Really? No one else believes me." Luke said, his smile representing all of the colors of the rainbow.

"Sure. You look like you can totally party hardcore." said Ashton chuckling at the thought.

"Sorry to interrupt." Calum said, as he walked up the steps to the porch of the building, "but I'm ready."

"We are too." Luke said standing up from the bench. "So what's the list say I gotta do this month?"

Calum handed Luke a sheet of paper. The younger blonde hastily read over it. Ashton looked down and saw Calum holding a sheet out to him.

"Oh thanks." he said, taking the sheet in his hand. It read:   
Chores for Ashton Irwin  
Monday - in the common living area dust ceiling fans, blinds, knick knacks, and baseboards.

Tuesday - in the common living room area wipe down furniture and windows. Also, in the main bathroom wipe down the mirror and the counters.

Wednesday -empty the trash can in the livingroom area and bathroom area and cafeteria.

Thursday - in the common living area vacuum.

Friday - mop and scrub the hardwood floors of the cafeteria.

Ashton put the paper down. This was all so new to him. He couldn't take this structured living. This is not how life is meant to be lived. Tears nearly sprung to his eyes, but he pushed them back down in fear that Luke and Calum would notice and make fun of him. He was acting like a baby, all he had to do was a few chores, but it was hard for him to be ordered around on a schedule. He's use to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. Not that he's spoiled or anything, in fact, it's the complete opposite, but Ashton likes to clean when he thinks things are dirty not because a list tells him to.

"Man. I have a lot of kitchen crap to do this semester." Luke whined. Calum snapped his fingers in an "aw shucks" kind of way, "Damn, that sucks but I have a lot of bathroom chores all around campus."

"Ew." Luke winced. Calum ruffled the boy's hair. "Let's go Lucas. Remember the gold stars." Calum said as he led Luke into the Marliam gameroom and General hang out center.

It was a lovely Tuesday which meant Ashton had to sit on the floor and scrub the counters and cabinets in front of a bunch of students who were chilling in there.

"Hey loser, when you're done washing the cabinet can you polish my shoes?" Brandon called out laughing at Ashton. He walked over and pushed Luke to the ground.

"Here have this breadstick help you." Brandon hackled, clapping his friend, Daniels, hand.   
Ashton waited for Luke to retaliate but the boy simply crawled over to another area and scrubbed the floor. Ashton sighed. Ignoring the laughing idiots was difficult but manageable.

When they finally finished their chores the bell to lunch rang. Ashton, Calum, and Luke stayed close together in the pack of wild hungry wolves. Throughout lunch all Ashton could think about was how embarrassed he was for being here in the first place. This school was meant for criminals, jerks, and people who couldn't handle life so they wound up here. No matter what, Ashton refused to classify himself as one of these kids. He could handle life just fine on his own. All he needs is himself. Heart pounding, hands sweating, Ashton felt his cheeks flush red when he thought about his home life. His parents didn't want him or love him, but that doesn't mean he belongs behind bars. It angered him to no ends that his parents didn't even try to fight for him. They just let the court do whatever they wanted to Ashton. He could actually be in fucking prison right now and his parents probably wouldn't care. That's what hurt the most.

Both Calum and Luke had a silver can of Pepsi and a bowl of salad sitting in front of them. Ashton took note that Calum disliked cheese and Luke took out the cucumbers. Trying to do the same to Calum's only to get a verbal scolding. Luke settled with his own bowl and decided to stop munching off of Calum's for now. They started yapping about some dumb coffee place on campus when Ashton finally decided to tune into the conversation.

"Literally, the coffee is different every time." Calum said shaking his delicious cup of coffee around.

Luke giggled, "it's different every time?"

"Yeah first it's like Mocha, then it's like vanilla and today I swear I am drinking Carmel coffee."

"Mmm, that sounds good though."

Throughout Lunch, Ashton reminded quiet, not even bothering to smile at his friends goofy jokes.

"Ashton? Are you okay?" Calum finally asked. He winced when Luke smacked his arm, giving him a look that only best friends could understand. Rubbing his arm to sooth the sting, Calum shot Luke a glare, "I was just asking."

"Maybe Ashton doesn't want you to pry." Luke reminded Calum, then he turned to the dirty blonde and said, "you don't have to tell us if you don't want to. But we're here for you if you wanna talk."

Ashton nodded, muttering a soft "thank you." His chest felt all warm and fuzzy at Luke’s frankness. He liked how open Luke was with his thoughts. Then again, there are parts of Luke's life that he doesn't talk about. Ashton can tell by the way he sometimes avoids questions.

Ashton wasn't one to open up easily, especially around new people. He always has his guard up. Probably because his parents screamed at him constantly and if he didn't have is guard up he might not have survived the raging wars of his childhood. But there was something about Luke and Calum that made Ashton want to speak his mind. He wanted to - vent- to someone. Which was weird because he always kept things to himself in fear of being a burden to others. Maybe Ashton feels that way towards the two boys because they are both welcoming him into the school. They both offered him a place to sit at lunch and in class. Whatever the reason, Ashton finally took a chance and said, "I'm just thinking about home is all." He waited patiently for their response. Subconsciously, biting his nails until he had none left, Ashton watched Luke look down at his plate and Calum frown.

"It's alright man." Calum said, "we all miss home. Well, I don't really miss it because my father was constantly putting pressure on me to do better things and my mum screamed at me all the time for my smallest failures. But I feel like I let them down by being here, you know."

Ashton nodded. He didn't really know, but he could sympathize. Truth be told, Ashton couldn't care less if he displeased his parents. He hated them and they hated him. But Ashton let himself down by getting caught stealing and being brought here. He had big plans for his own future and now it feels like his plans are on another galaxy: Impossible to reach

"If you really miss them, there are family days." Calum explained.

"No. It's alright. I just feel... Trapped here."   
He glanced between the empty faces and sighed, "never mind." The boys didn't push Ashton further. They simply changed the subject back to coffee.

The second half of the day flew by. Before Ashton knew it, he was done with his first day. He went back to his dorm room and realized Calum wasn't there. Tossing himself onto the small couch, Ashton smashed his face in the cushions and cried. His heart hurt from all the changes he went through. It was all so overwhelming. His head ached as he cried, but he needed to fall apart for a few minutes. It's not even homesickness that he feels because his house is not a home. In fact, that's exactly why he's crying. He wants a home. He wants something he never had and probably never will and that is a place where is heart is full, body is at peace, and soul is understood. Obviously that is way too much to ask because life is kicking him in the ass right now. Ashton felt the rough fabric of the black couch rub against his cheek as he cried. The pain felt kind of good but then he cried harder for thinking that way. "I hate this." He said to absolutely no one. Sobs shook his body as he clutched the fabric between his fists. Suddenly, Ashton heard the door fly open and he jolted upright, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, willing himself to stop crying.   
"Jesus" he muttered, trying to wipe his face repeatedly to pretend he wasn't just having an emotional breakdown in the middle of the day.

"Hey Ashton." Calum said, barely looking at him. Instead he focused on the task of reaching under his bed for a guitar case. Thank God, Ashton thought as he wiped the snot from his nose with his sleeve.

"Hey." Ashton's voice wobbled. Dammit, he didn't want to sound like a baby. Ashton waited to see what Calum's response would be. When Calum just stared at him, Ashton thought maybe Calum was going pretend like he didn't see the tears stains stuck on his face or his red sniffling nose. In a way, Ashton would like it like that. At least he could keep some of his dignity.

"Are you alright?"

Oh that question. That damn question. The same question everyone asks. What should he say? No, I'm not okay at all?

"Yeah I'm fine."

That wasn't the plan. Ashton mentally scolded himself for not being honest with his emotions.

"Then why are you crying?" Calum pressed. He dropped his guitar case to the floor and took the spot next to Ashton.

"I'm fine. It's a stupid reason." Ashton forced a smile.

"I've said that before." Calum sympathized. "but I never really meant it. If it makes you cry, then it's never stupid."

A fresh wave of tears broke free. "I'm sorry." Ashton chocked out, his body shaking.

"Hey. It's alright." Calum soothed. He pulled Ashton's shaking frame in for a quick, awkward bro hug. Even though it was weird, Ashton could tell Calum's comforted people before. He has that certain comforting demeanor that makes Ashton feel secure. The boy sniffled, then pulled back from the hug. He offered a weak smile of gratitude.

"Do you want to come and sing with Luke and I?" Calum offered, a clear attempt to cheer Ashton up.

"Sing?" he questioned, wiping his eyes again.

"Yeah. We are going to spend the rest of the day singing and playing our instruments." Calum pointed to his guitar case.

"I can't sing." Ashton said, his face falling. He tried to sing in middle school choir but the teacher humiliated him in front of the class by saying, 'maybe you should try something a little less challenging, sweetheart.'"

"Everyone can sing." Calum exclaimed and Ashton resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Not everyone can sing _well_ , but everyone can sing."

When Ashton's frown deepened, Calum nudged his shoulder, "I'm serious. I sound awful too, but I sing for fun. It's freaking Luke that has the real talent."

"Really?" Ashton thought about the moments he spoke with Luke. "He does have a deep voice doesn't he?"

"Tell me about it. I love the kid, but I hate him, Ya know?"

Ashton shook his head because he really didn't know. He understands how one can hate another, but love? That's something he never experienced before. Not from his siblings, not from his parents, and not from his friends. Calum noticed the drastic change of expression. He saw how Ashton's eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"Hey, if you’re ever sad just picture Luke falling down a flight of stairs with his arms flying and his legs getting tangled together."

Ashton snorted, he couldn't help the smile that formed on his face at the thought of Luke's limbs getting tangled.

"Jeez, Calum, that's a terrible thing to say."

"But it made you smile."

It did. A moment of mutual respect for one another passed before both boys were heading out to play music.

"I know I said we play in the music room, but the thing is, I lied." Calum lead Ashton up the flight of stairs to the top floor. "You see, the music room is never empty. There's always kids their playing instruments and making noise. It's fine and all, but Luke and I want a private place where we can listen to our music and dance without anyone judging us."

"I'm with you so far."

"So Luke and I decided to find out own place to sing where no one else will find us." Calum stopped walking when they came to a door on the top floor that said keep out.

Ashton cocked his head to the side, "you lost me." Calum smirked as he opened the door. "Come on." He gestured Ashton to follow him up another flight of stairs. Ashton took a deep breath and weighed his options. He could follow Calum and potentially break a rule or he could abandon his only opportunity to see something secretive and special to Calum. It didn't take him long to follow behind.

Apparently the door led to the roof of the school. On top of that roof was a patio looking area with a grill, a white couch and brown fence. It legitimately looked like a backyard. Out of the distance Ashton could see hill of sparking green grass illuminated by the setting sun. A fresh breeze whipped his hair around but it felt amazing. Refreshing. Staring up, Ashton could see how beautiful the bright blue sky was.

"Holy fuck." Ashton shouted, "what the hell is this place?"

The scenery helped Ashton feel out of imprisonment. He felt free in nature. This really was a great place to escape too.

"Our music room." Calum answered. "Luke should be here, oh there he is." Calum pointed to Luke who was coming out from behind the wooden fence while zipping up his pants.

"That's where we go to the bathroom." Calum explained patting Ashton on the back. Biting his lip to hold back his laughter, Ashton nodded enthusiastically. "Great."

"Hi Ashton. What are you doing up here."

"I brought him, what do you think?" Calum said tossing Luke a Pepsi from the mini fridge they had up there.

"Wow, should I even ask how you managed to get all this junk up here."

"I wouldn't." The blonde said as he threw himself on the couch pressing play on what ashton assumed to be a mini radio. Jessie's girl blasted through the speakers at an excruciatingly loud volume but Luke didn't even flinch.

"HOW CAN YOU HEAR THROUGH ALL THIS MUSIC." Ashton screamed above the noise. Calum waved Luke a signal to turn the music down.

"Just sit back and relax, Ashton. Here pick a song." Calum handed him a couple of CD's to look through.

"You guys really are bad." Ashton giggled. His laughter spread to the others contagiously.

"Not bad. Just fun." Calum corrected him.

Ashton smiled in spite of himself. As much as he hated to admit it, this was his idea of fun too. He's lucky to have found friends with similar interests.

How did he end up so lucky? 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> there's a story behind every person. There's a reason they are the way they are. Think about that before you judge someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's Calum's Birthday. 
> 
> :) yay

"Why do you look so sad, Ashton. Don't you like My Chemical Romance?" Luke turned down the music again in order for Ashton to hear and answer him. Calum, however, stepped in, "he's not use to it here. That's all."

"Oh." Picking up the guitar that Calum handed to him, Luke started strumming softly. Humming to himself the song Hot and Cold.

"Don't worry." Calum said clapping Ashton on the back, "everyone has a rough couple of days at first, but you'll get use to it. I tried an escape route on my first day of school. It wasn't smart and it didn't work, but I got my first punishment over and done with so it wasn't weighing on my mind anymore. And it turns out it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Looking sadly at the floor, Ashton decided to remain silent on the subject of getting use to this place. "So you guys play music up here?" Ashton still couldn't get over how awesome the top of the roof was.

Luke and Calum nodded. "We were going to play A team by Ed sheeren on our guitars."

"Yeah, we're going to practice in advance this year for the school talent show so maybe we'll actually get lucky and win."

Calum scoffed, "yeah that won't happen my young naive friend. Not with Brandon Conley involved."

"Oh, he's that popular dude, right?" Ashton asked.

"The one with dark brown hair and the perfect tie pins, yes." Calum said sassily. Luke chuckled softly then pulled Calum in for a lopsided bro hug, "sorry for Calum's severely cruel attitude. He's just mad because Brandon literally beats us every year."

"He's not even that good!" Calum shouted pulling out of Luke's embrace to spit some inspiring rant. "He just wins because his uncle is in charge of this school."

"Feldman's his uncle?"

"Yes! It's so unfair. We work our asses off and Brandon wins every year."

"Well, Brandon does have his own keyboard and he's beast at playing the piano. Not to mention this school appreciates his classical style over our rock music."

It made sense to Ashton. Honestly, why would a prestigious correctional school support bad ass music. It would probably look awful for the school's reputation. But Ashton also thought it was unfair that the kids at this school can't be exposed to amazing songs and different genres of music.

Calum took Luke's Pepsi can out of his hand and put it on the side table.   
"Do you want to watch us play?" Calum asked Ashton.

"Oh? Sure. Practice away."

Calum started strumming but he looked at Luke who was frozen in place. Calum nudged him slightly. "Come on, Luke, like we practiced." But Luke didn't strum he just stared at Ashton with a painfully nervous smile.   
"Just pretend I'm not even here." Ashton said pulling out his cell phone from his back pocket.

Luke took a deep breath then started strumming his guitar. Calum sang out, "white lips. pale face. Breathing in the snowflakes. Burnt lungs. Sour taste. Nights gone. Days end. Struggling to pay rent. Long nights. Strange men."

Luke took a deep breath, "and they say she's in the class A team, stuck in her daydream been this way since 18 but lately her face seems slowly sinking wasting -" Ashton couldn't help but look up from his phone and watch the two in awe. They really did have talent. Their voices were powerful, a little shaky here and there, but strong and beautiful. When they finished the song Ashton applauded. A blush crossed Luke's high cheekbones as he smiled at the ground. Calum on the other hand tossed his bass down in excitement to ask, "did you really like it?"

"Yeah, you guys were great."

"You don't think we sounded too young?"

Ashton shook his head. He glanced at the corner of the roof area where a blue skateboard helmet was and a few skateboards were poorly hidden behind a raised part of the roof. A few ribbons were hung on the raised part of the roof with posters ranging from Good Charlotte all the way down to Spider-Man.

"You guys hang up here a lot, huh?"

"It's basically our music room." Calum explained. "But we always keep track of time cause it's easy to get carried away up here."

"That's understandable."

"Speaking of time, it's almost six, we better get to dinner."

Ashton's eyes widened, "seriously? It's already six?"

"Yeah time flys when you're with us, doesn't it." Calum raised his eyebrow in some seductive way making Ashton laugh uncomfortably.

"Calum, just stop." Luke groaned as he stood up, walking past his laughing friend. "We have to put our instruments back."

Ashton followed the two boys to their dorms before running as fast as they could to Marliam building for dinner.

"Two minutes!" Luke shouted, staring at his wrist watch. "We're not gonna make it."

"Yeah we will." Ashton said. They picked up the pace, running as fast as they could towards the building, shoes scuffing the pavement below them. Adrenaline pumped through Ashton's veins as he laughed wildly. Luke and Calum were laughing just as much, almost falling to the ground holding their stomachs.

"Guys, why are we laughing? We are about to miss dinner." Luke said through belly laughs. They continued running down the hill.

"Oh God. Ahhhh." Caum screamed as he tumbled down the hill on his side.

It's official, Ashton's feet we're going faster than his brain could tell them too as the downhill slope grew steeper. He suddenly found himself tripping and before he knew it his body was tumbling down the hill. Calum was rolling right beside him. They reached the bottom and stood up, dizzy and disoriented. They raced to the door.

"Made it!" Luke said, he opened the door so fast he nearly smacked himself in the face.

Ashton and Calum ran through it and entered the loud, boisterous cafeteria room. They were panting heavily while they waited in a never ending line for dinner.

Julie was really good to them tonight. She added extra cheese to the cardboard tasting pizza plus she gave them extra slices which they needed to refuel their energy.

"My sister Mali is phenomenal at accents! She can listen to someone speak and nail it. I've always struggled with that." Calum explained shoving pizza in his mouth.

"I love your sister." Luke said.

"Shut up, Luke." Calum chuckled.

"What's wrong with loving your sister?"

"It's gross."

Luke and Calum nudged eachother smiling down at their pizza's. Then, Luke looked up at Ashton and explained, "She's the one who introduced Calum to music."

"Oh, that's nice." Ashton said, then, "does anyone have a phone charger?"

Calum nodded, searching his pockets and pulling out a chord. "I hope you have an Iphone."

Ashton nodded, eyes never leaving his phone.

Calum lifts his shirt up to look at his armpit randomly. "I'm 16 years old and that's all I get." He muttered. Ashton and Luke laughed at the bare looking under arm.   
"Okay, this is getting real gross real fast." Luke said turning his nose up at Calum's B.O. Ashton smirked then looked at his own arms that were covered in hair. He suddenly felt weird for someone his age to have too much hair. "why are my arms so hairy.   
Calum glared, "oh, rub it in."

Luke stood up from his spot, "I'm gonna get more pizza."

"Bring me a slice!" Calum called.

"Sure thing." Luke said walking behind Calum and over to the main table.

Once again, Ashton and Calum were left alone in awkward silence.

"So." Ashton said tapping his fingers on the table out of nervous habit, "how are you?"

"Good."

Ashton was about to say something else when he saw Michael walk by and smack Luke's tray down to the ground. Standing frozen in place, Luke's mouth dropped open. Unsure of how to respond to Michael's cruel actions, Luke turned helplessly in Calum's direction.

"Oh shit." Ashton said quietly. Calum stood under so fast his chair toppled to the floor. "what the -- HEY!"

Rushing over to the scene, Calum shoved Michael away from Luke because the kid with red hair dye was about to dump a cup of water overtop of Luke's head.

Ashton followed close behind to comfort the kid who was just standing there, terror stricken.

"It's okay Luke." Ashton whispered. He quickly pulled Luke behind him.

"Get off of him." He heard Calum shout.

"Aw, did your little dick friend come to save you, breadstick?" Michael asked Luke, who was now standing with his hands on his hip.

"At least I have friends." Luke shot back defensively, smirking when Michael visibly shrunk back, a deep frown etched on his face. It didn't take long for the 'I don't give a fuck' attitude to come back.

"New guy," Ashton looked up assuming Michael was talking to him. Their eyes met. "take my advice and stop hanging around these losers. They are the most unpopular, goodie - goodie two shoes in the entire school." Without another word, Michael walked off over to the deep shadows of the cafeteria and sat by himself. He pulled out a piece of paper and started scribbling something on it. Ashton realized how sad he looked just then. Poor kid, he seemed deeply misunderstood.

"Are you okay, Luke?" Calum asked already cleaning up the pizza from the floor. He crinkled his nose when the wet grease slobbered all over his bare hands. Tossing the smeared pizza sauce in the trash as Luke responded, "Yeah. I'm okay."

"Just ignore him. He's a sad case and a lost cause." Calum said glaring in Michael's direction.

"He doesn't seem that bad."

Apparently Ashton needs to learn to keep his opinions to himself because both Calum and Luke stared at him as if he grew a third head.   
Settling for a shrug, Ashton buries himself deeper in a hole by suggesting that Michael might actually be nice underneath all that attitude.

"I think he's just misunderstood."

Calum averted his gaze while Ashton explained how Michael is probably a lonely soul seeking attention. When Calum turned back to face Ashton, his eyes were narrow and cold.

"No offense, but how long have you been here again? Oh, that's right," Calum held up a few fingers to emphasize his point, "two days. I'm sorry if you think that's a long time, but it's fucking not. So Stop acting like you know everything about everybody and shut your damn mouth."

Well that stung. Ashton casts his eyes onto the ground.

"It's alright, Calum." Luke said softly, "Ashton isn't trying to be rude or anything. He's just being a nice guy."

Looking up at Luke, Ashton was relieved to see the younger boy pacifying Calum's anger by hugging him. Already, Calum seemed to be shaking off the whole situation, which personally, Ashton thought the situation was blown out of proportion anyway. All he did was stick up for the red haired boy with tattoos and eyeliner.

"Thanks for helping me clean up the mess." Said Luke, "I better get a new shirt from my dorm."

"Do you want to go now?" Calum asked, looking intently at Luke's averted blue eyes.

"If I stay until after dinner, Michael Clifford aka loser gothic guy would probably make fun of me. Even though he doesn't have group of buddies to attack me with because he's a freak, I still don't want him picking on me in front of the whole school like a prick." He said rolling his eyes.

That pissed Ashton off. It was like a flame lit under Ashton's butt and he just went off. Who was Luke to judge Michael? He reached over and punched Luke's arm. It was meant to be gentle, a sort of reminder not to be a judgemental bastard, but no one else saw it that way. Calum's vein nearly bulged out of his head when Luke jumped forward with a loud squeal.

"What the fuck!" the tan boy screamed, nearly tossing Luke behind him and hovering over Ashton like a hungry bear.

Shrinking back, Ashton stuttered out an apologize. He slouched his shoulders, but held eye contact with Calum. He wasn't going to back down because Ashton hated how mean Luke was being towards the misunderstood boy. "Sorry Calum, but he was insulting Michael."

"Because Michael is an ass to him." Calum shouted.

Straightening his back, Ashton huffed in frustration, "but that doesn't give Luke a right to be an ass back."

"He didn't say it to his face."

"So he said it behind his back. Isn't that worse?"

"He said it to his friends. It's up to us to listen to our friend and respect his opinions" Calum said looking directly at Ashton to the point where Ashton had to look away. As soon as he saw Luke, Ashton's heart sank.

The kid was white as a ghost, trembling from head to toe holding his red stricken arm like he was shot.

"Luke, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He whispered.

"I'm sorry." Ashton apologized hesitantly, "I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just...I don't know."

"I'm fine." Luke hissed, Letting go of his own arm. Ashton gulped at Luke's eyes. They were clouded over with a tint of something. Perhaps it was anger? No, it was something different. What was that thing? In the moment, Ashton didn't know what else to say. He stood awkwardly, speechless, while other kids passed beside him to put their trays away. Why would a playful punch to the arm cause such an absurd response?

Sighing heavily, Calum ran a hand through his thick black hair, "you know what, it's fine. Luke's fine. Everything's all good. Why don't we just go back to our dorm." Calum suggested. He slung his arm around Luke's neck and they walked back to their table to retrieve their plates.

Everything wasn't fine.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> persevering:   
> why stop now when I'm just getting the hang of it?

It's been one week since Ashton arrived at the Summers Institution: Boarding school for Troubled boys and he already has most of his schedule down. He figured out all the short cuts around campus to get him to class faster. He knows which teachers care if he's on his phone or not. He figured out how to manage all his assignments with a weekly planner that he made from scratch. Life was pretty good.  
  
Ashton always wanted to do something creative; he had that spirit run through him. Wether it be photography, drawling, or music, Ashton always wanted to create 'art'. Therefore, he was exceptionally proud of his planner that consisted of big bubble letters of his name and the Rolling Stones symbol of lips and a Rock'N Roll hand symbol. The month of January had an awesome green skull with pink heart eyes and a black snapback as the cover picture. Ashton took precautions to spell January in a different font of bubble letters. To top it all off, he added a few naked girls and a penis because a guy has his needs okay?

By the time first period ruled around Ashton was prepared to write down any assignment he may have. Mr. Frey passed out a few sheets of paper outlining how to write a poem. Ashton took the huge stack of papers and passed them to the person behind him.

"Alright class, this last week we have been discussing poetry. As you all know there are many different forms of poetry. Can someone name one type we went over last week?"

Last week? Is this guy kidding? Ashton couldn't even remember what he had for dinner last night let alone a boring school term. Apparently Ashton wasn't alone because no one raised their hands. Luke was shaking in his seat, something Ashton was now use to seeing. He figured the boy was an anxious type and left it at that. Ashton glanced over to see Calum playing with his fingernails, occasionally he swiped a glance at his cell phone that was hanging out of his pants pocket. Then there was Max, with the slicked back hair and warm brown eyes. He was looking around the room like Ashton was, waiting for someone to respond. The kid with the Green Mohawk was the first to raise his hand.

"Yes, Wade." The teacher seemed overly enthusiastic about someone answering the question.

"Um, isn't one term called a sonnet."

"Yes!" Mr. Frey shouted, making the whole class jump. "A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines using any number of formal rhyme scheme. A famous example of a sonnet is Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day by William Shakespeare."

Mr. Frey wrote the word sonnet down on the blackboard.

"Anyone else?"

This time no one raised their hands. Mr. Frey sighed and wrote down a list of several other types poems.

"Now your assignment is to write a poem about money using any of these types that are on the board. Do you have any questions?"

"Why Money?" The Mohawk kid asked.

"Because we all have something to say about it, right?" Mr. Frey smirked, "alright there is a few extra minutes of class left. Why don't you use this time to start writing. It is due tomorrow."   
The class groaned, but almost everyone pulled out their notebooks.

When the bell rang, Ashton and Luke hiked up to Oak Hall. By the time they got to class they were panting something fierce. If Ashton had to climb those steps for another five months he wasn't going to survive. In Math, Ashton had to be on his most perfect behavior because this witch named Lash would kick his ass if he was anything less than perfect. It made learning a lot harder and Ashton could already tell half of this stuff was going over his head.

After Math class, Luke begged Ashton to get Coffee with him so Ashton and Luke went to the Starbucks in the campus cafeteria area down by the Mariliam.

"What do you want?"

"Vanilla cappuccino." Luke said, "with extra whip cream please."

Ashton pulled out his wallet and bought his younger friend the drink. This boarding school had its perks, Ashton thought as he sipped his delicious drink. Luke smiled at the beverage, taking it into his hands and sipping it gingerly. Ashton bought himself a mocha latte which by the way was ridiculously priced. The two boys left the Mariliam and went outside to sit on the bench.

"So how are you liking Math Class? I mean, do you like it more now that you've had a few classes?" Luke asked swallowing his drink.

Ashton twisted the lid on his cup around, "No. Not really." He answered honestly.

"That's okay, I know a lot of people who hate Math." Luke explained, "I'm only good at it because my mum is a math teacher."

"Really?" Ashton asked, slightly interested in this topic for the simple fact that Luke has never spoken about his family.

The boy nodded, his quiffed blond hair bouncing in the wind.

"That's cool. My mom never worked." Ashton admitted, "but my step dad was a drummer for some band. He played a few gigs and got some cash. It wasn't much though."

Luke smiled and nodded, not saying anything else about his own family and Ashton felt a little awkward.

"Speaking of classes, we should probably get going to our next ones." Ashton said looking out over the hills leading up to the buildings.

"I guess so." Luke sighed, "but I don't want to go to French class. None of my friends are in there."

"You mean Calum's not in there."

Luke looked slightly offended by the comment but he said, "Exactly. He's with you in history class."

Ashton bit his lip, "hey, I know you have other friends other than Calum, I was just joking."

"No, I really don't." Luke said looking away from Ashton.

Awkward tension suddenly filled the gaps in the conversation. Standing up, Ashton stretched, "well I'm going to head off to class now. By Luke."

"Oh wait." Luke called, "I wanted to ask you something."

Ashton raised his eyebrows, "shoot."

"Do you want to come to the game this Friday?"

"What game?"

"The soccer game that Calum's playing in." Luke resisted the urge to add "duh."

Ashton laughed in his loud pitched way, "sure, I'd love to come."

"Awesome. It's Friday at 7pm."

"Cool." With that, Ashton climbed the mountain to get to history class.

At the end of the day, Ashton was in his red pj's ready for bed. He shut the Telly off and climbed into his bunk. He looked across at the face that was lying two feet away from him in a new mattress that Calum's father bought.

"Goodnight Luke." Ashton said.

"Goodnight Ashton, goodnight Calum."

The tan boy, who was on the top bunk smiled over at the younger boy. "Let me know if that mattress is uncomfortable. I'll have my father replace it in a heart beat."

"Thanks Calum." Luke said, "but this one is good."

"Are you sure? It's cozy and stuff?"

"Yeah." Luke yawned. "Thanks for letting me sleep in your room."

"Anytime."

There were so many questions Ashton had about this. For one, what would happen if the school did a nightly check and they realized Luke wasn't in his room? But last night Calum answered that question by saying Luke would stay in his room until the nightly checks are over. Still, Ashton found this to be a risky move. They could always do surprise check ups. But moving on, Ashton also wondered how Calum's father was able to get a mattress up here for Luke. Was the man really at Calum's beck and call? Does the man really love his son enough to give him mattresses, TV sets, furniture, and music instruments? Ashton put it all together and figured the 'people' Calum claims to know are his rich parents. Nevertheless, Ashton wouldn't dare bring up a conversation about that. It's too accusing. He will save it for a time when Calum and him are arguing.

"Calum I want cinnamon toast tomorrow for breakfast." Luke said quietly.

"Text Julie." Calum responded, his eyes drooping.

Luke crawled out of bed and gabbed his phone which was on the nightstand. He immediately raced back under the warm comfy blankets, curling them over his shoulders, with the phone in his hand.

Ashton shut his eyes and fell asleep. The loud alarm on his phone went off, blasting the tune Unwell by Matchbox 20. A few seconds later Luke's alarm went off screaming Down by Blink 182. And the third alarm was Calum's which sang Stacy's mom.

"Ugh." Ashton groaned reaching over to shut his alarm off. "I fucking hate class starting at 6:00.am."

"Technically, it's just breakfast." Calum said sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"We don't need that, do we?" Ashton asked already falling back to sleep on his soft pillow. It smelled so good. Ashton was in heaven, that is, until Calum yanked him by the hair. "Ow! What the hell!"

"Get up." Calum said causally, walking over to Luke and giving the younger boy the same treatment. Ashton listened to Luke whimper while he brushed his teeth.

"Stop doing that." The younger lad complained, fixing his already fluffy hair.

"I can't. Your body doesn't respond to gentle morning wake ups."

"That's because my body doesn't want to wake up at six in the fucking morning."

"Grouchy again I see." Ashton called.

"He's always grouchy in the morning." Calum replied.

"So am I." Ashton said spiting his toothpaste in the sink, "but even I'm not as bad as him."

"I'm not a morning person, okay, so sorry." Luke sassed.

Ashton laughed, wiped his face with a towel then walked out of the tiny bathroom.

"Your turn." He said tossing Calum the toothpaste. He proceeded to get dressed in his school uniform. Thankfully after classes he is able to change into more comfortable attire.

They made it out of the dorm in record timing and ate breakfast relatively fast, except for Calum who took eight years on his french toast.

Finally 1st period started. Ashton was holding his really bad poem in his hand. He was ready to turn this thing in and never look at it again. But Mr. Frey had other plans while he sat on his desk in the front of the room and smiled at his students.

"Alright, so you had an assignment last class. That assignment was to write a poem about money. Today you will present that poem."   
A group of guys dropped their mouths wide open. Luke, Calum and Ashton shared terrified looks.

"I suggest you guys get use to this." Mr. Frey said after a few minutes passed, "you will be doing this all semester."

Oh hell. Ashton started shaking and he was sure his heart was running a marathon.

"Let's start with the first row. How about you Tucker?"

The blond stood up, pulled out a sheet of paper, then took a deep breath. He kept his eyes glued to the paper and read, "For the first time in my life/ I felt ashamed/ Of where I came from,/ And where I live.   
And the worst part is/ I can't tell you why./ You'd laugh it off and say/ It's only money."

The class applauded. "Very good Tucker." Mr. Frey said.

"Really?" He asked.

"Indeed." He said. The next kid stood up. He was short, with thick glasses.

"Since money is all you want  
Money is all you'll see  
If money is all you love  
then money is what you'll be  
Money money money money  
Money does not love you honey  
Cause love cannot be bought  
What happens when the money is gone  
You'll be all alone and lost  
Just remember you chose money  
So money is what you got"

The class clapped wordlessly. If everyone felt the way Ashton did then the class must have looked like starstruck zombies. These poems were good. They might not follow all the rules, but they were heartfelt. Ashton looked down at his own poem and gulped.

Brandon Conley shot up from his chair. Fixing his blazer, he cleared his throat then began reading, "Money hungry and ambitious I plan to do it all , no more dreaming or damn wishing/ I swear..to stay keen to my intuition/ I feel artistry is my mission, if it wasn't, a part of me would be missing/ failure is a place where goals have no existence/ Instead I travel to victory in the distance.

"Figures Brandon would write something like that" Calum whispered in Ashton's ear. They watched the proud boy sit down. Luke stood up on wobbly legs. His voice was shaky and his face was glowering red.

"Money can't buy you love because love is greater than money / yet money can help you find love which is sweeter than honey / Money isn't everything but, in this world we find, it sure does go a long way; / love of money is wrong and, unless used to help others, doesn't really pay.

Calum clapped the loudest, standing up to give his poem and Luke a friendly pat on the back. A smile creeped over Luke's face now that the dreaded speech was over with. The rest of the class giggled at Calum's loud cheers.

Making a rather dramatic display, Calum unraveled his sheet of paper. Calum cleared his throat and winked at Brandon. "This is for my girl across the street. My girl that comes to all of my games. You all can meet her Friday night if you want to."   
Mr. Frey gestured for him to continue.   
"Baby, you’re not a million dollars" Calum began, "If you were then you wouldn’t be mine / You’d be in the stores I've visited / The restaurants I ate at / You’d be tucked away in a safe place for no one to marvel at / No, you’re more than that / You’re not money  
Money has no meaning compared to you / You’re the stars in the sky / The air I breathe / You’re a wonderful piece of art   
If I could choose between you and a million bucks / I wouldn’t hesitate on my choice / Money can buy me an ear / But you’re always here / Money can buy me comfort/ But you’re who brings me happiness / There’s no comparing

When the applause started Calum took a bow. "Thank you, I'll be here all semester."

"That was very sweet Calum." Mr. Frey smiled, "Ashton you're up."

Ashton stood up on his jelly legs.  
"Money is everything   
Money is power  
Money changes one person’s life around  
Money is hard to find  
Money makes us rich  
Money is what we have to work hard for  
Money is what makes us exist still  
Money is the main key  
Money is the prize for success  
Money is never easy to obtain."

Ashton was so relieved to finish that spill that he didn't even acknowledge the clapping until he sat down.

"Was that okay?" He asked Calum. The black haired boy nodded, "totally."

When English class was over, Ashton rolled through math and history class rather quickly. Music class was stressful, Mr. Day started the day off with telling them about a music assignments they will be forced to do every two weeks. The homework was to be video recorded on a webcam. What a stupid idea. As if recording himself singing wasn't bad enough, Mr. Day was going to show the whole class the video of him singing. That idea petrified Ashton. He can't sing. Once Upon a Time, he played his step dad's drums but that was before the man had taken the drum set and sold it for drugs. So Ashton could sorta play the drums. He knew the basics. But singing? Ashton couldn't sing if his life depended on it. At least that's what his mom told him when she heard him humming along to the radio in the car. She told him if he ever sang again she would throw him outside and make him sleep with the rats because he sounded like one.

"You may do your homework individually or you can choose to do it within your group. Speaking of groups, I think it's time we pick our groups that we want to perform with in the school talent show." Mr. Day clapped his hands. "Alright kids. Let's begin. Please pick your groups. You need at least four people. I would prefer five. And the maximum number is six."

All of a sudden people were scrambling all over the place. Ashton jumped when he felt Calum grip his arm. "You, me, and Luke." He whispered in his ear.

"Who is our fourth person gonna be?" Ashton asked while straining his neck to look around the room.

Calum shrugged. "If this works out then hopefully no one will be left over." Ashton snorted. It almost sounded like Calum counted the students in the room to make sure the three of them would be a group. But that idea was ridiculous.

Surprisingly, Calum was correct, all of the groups were formed and there was no one left over. Now Ashton was concerned that Calum actually did count the kids.

"Alright." Mr. Day clapped, "we are going to watch example video of last year's students while I write down the names of the people in your group."

While Mr. Day set up the projector screen, a set of military style zip boots walked into the room.

"Oh no." Ashton heard a faint whisper from behind him, knowing instantly who it belonged to. When he turned to look he saw Luke giving Calum a look that screamed 'do something.' Calum bit his lip as the brightly dyed red haired boy walked into the class with a scowl on his face.

"Ah, Michael Clifford, so nice of you to join us. But you are late again." Mr. Day scolded.

"Look, you're lucky I showed up." Michael muttered, pulling at his black bracelets. Luke gulped from where he was seated and Calum instinctively rested his arm around Luke's neck.

"Very well. You will be joining Mr. Hood's group." The teacher muttered as he handed Michael a slip of paper, no doubt, a demerit.

"Mr. Day!" Calum exclaimed,"you can't be serious?"

"I'm sorry Calum, but your group is the only group with a small enough number. It only makes sense..."

"But we don't want him." Calum was bumped in the ribs by Luke. "I mean, he probably doesn't want to be with us either." Calum tried to laugh, nervously glancing in Michael's direction.

"Oh I don't." The red-head said sticking his tongue out at the group of losers.

"He's real mature too," Ashton whispered into Calum's ear.

"I told you, he's an ass." Calum whispered back.

"Please take a seat Mr. Clifford."

Michael sat down next to Luke, but not without making a dramatic display of literally dragging his feet and rolling his eyes. Luke's mood shifted violently. It scared Ashton how quickly Luke tensed up. The younger lad nearly sat in Calum's lap to get away from Michael.

Giving him silent reassurance, Calum patted Luke's hand. "Chill, Luke, were in the middle of class." Calum whispered loudly enough for Ashton and Michael to hear.

"Aw, am I making the baby nervous?"

"Shut up, dick face." Luke said, shoulders shaking enough to contradict any harsh words he could say.   
"Would you stop that. You look like you're about to have a fucking seizure." Michael growled.

"Oh, I'm sorry my current condition is bothering you. I forgot I only exist to you when you need to vent out your anger." Luke snapped.

"Listen brat." Michael seethed, "I don't want to hear any more words coming from your stupid little mouth. You already messed with me yesterday and that's not okay. So I suggest you -"

It was Calum to interrupt this time, "Stop talking to him like that or -"

"Or what?" Michael challenged smiling like a hyena, "what are you gonna do midget?"

"I'll punch you in your face!"

Mr. Day grunted, gaining the small groups attention. "Boys, is their anything you want to say in front of the class?"

Calum remained glaring at Michael, refusing to take his eyes of the arrogant lad. Luke was frozen in place, fearful of the teacher calling them out so it was up to Ashton to respond.

"No sir. We're good."

"Fantastic. Then please pay attention. If I have to stop class again you four will be getting a demerit."

"Sorry, Mr. Day." Calum finally responded, turning his attention to the front of the screen. A girl with blonde hair, a black tank top, tattoos and an acoustic guitar came on the screen.

"Hello, my name is Ally, this is my first assignment for The Summer's Institution for Girls." After the small intro she began strumming her guitar, and Ashton recognized the song immediately. She started singing, "step one you say we need to talk, he walks. You say sit down it's just a talk."

Throughout the song the girl closed her eyes and really embraced the music. She hit a few notes wrong and her voice was okay, but Mr. Day bragged about her A performance.

"When I taught across the street at the Girls boarding school, Ally was one of my favorite students. She always put forth so much passion in her work. This is what will earn you an A. It doesn't matter how well you do. I just want you kids to feel the music within yourselves."

From the side of the room Ashton could hear Brandon snicker at the blond girl. He mocked her accent along with his buddies and Ashton huffed. Jerks.

Another video was pulled up, this one was a brunette boy with slicked back hair named Ethan. "Hey guys, this is how to save a life by the Frey."

He began playing his guitar. When the song picked up he added his own sound to it. Once the video ended a kid in the back with dark skin raised his hand.

"Yes DJ?"

"Is there a reason you showed us videos of the two students involved in the accident three years ago at the girls institution?"

"No, DJ, i simply thought these students did a remarkable job at performing their homework assignment."

The answer seemed to satisfy the student, but Ashton was more curious than ever. What accident happen three years ago?

"Alright students. Your first assignment will be a song by the Frey. I want you all to sing, You Found Me."

Ashton nibbled on his already bitten down nails like a famished mouse. The thought of himself performing on a webcam terrified him to no end. His mouth formed a ridged grimace as Mr. Day dismissed class.

"I cannot believe we have to work with Michael Clifford." Calum grumbled, walking quickly to the door.

"I still don't think he's that bad." Ashton admitted, dodging the door that Calum slammed in his face.

"Calum, just stop." Luke yelled, it was the first time Ashton heard his voice raise.

"Hey," Ashton wrapped his arms around the two boys, "I know what will cheer you both up. A music night on the roof top!"

____________________

Music blared as Calum slid across the rooftop in his socks. He bumped his butt into Ashton's and they spun around singing into their hairbrushes. Luke popped up behind them with a broom in his hands. He was playing it like a guitar, jamming out the the song on the radio. He smacked it down against the floor a few times before ditching it to the side to dance with Calum and Ashton. They were in nothing but boxers while they jumped up and down simultaneously. Getting into it, Ashton started dropping it low, shaking his ass and letting loose. Nothing else mattered at the current moment. It was just him, his friends, and a catchy song that allowed him to have the best night of his life.

He was just about to try a robot dance when he spotted a pair of people below the building.

"Guys!" He shouted, but the music was too loud. Calum was spinning Luke around when the music stopped.

"Bro, what are you doing, it was just about to go into the bridge. That's like my favorite part."

"Shhh!" Ashton covered Calum's face with his hand. The tan boy grimaced, shoving Ashton's hand away and wiping his face with his sleeve, "gross." He complained.

"What time is it?" Ashton asked.

Luke whipped out his phone and gasped, "oh my... shit, shit, shit!" He exclaimed, tugging his blonde strands harshly. Ashton leaned over his shoulder to catch a glance at the phone: 1:32am. Ashton gulped down a nervous lump in his throat. They were so screwed.

"Wow, we really lost track of time." Calum chuckled softly obviously trying to lighten the grim mood. Luke's shoulders began trembling again. Instinctively, Ashton wrapped the smaller lad into a warm hug.

"It's alright, Luke. We'll think of something." He lied. Honestly, the fact of the matter was Ashton Calum and Luke were covered in sweat on top of a roof at 1:32am when they should be sound asleep in their dorm rooms.

"We never got busted before." Calum replied, "what if they find out about the roof?"

"Then we better get off of it." Ashton responded running towards the staircase. Once they were in the hallway he led them to his dorm but Calum walked right past it, tugging Luke with him.

"Where are you going, Mrs. Lash is probably on the 1st floor!"

"Lu needs to get to his dorm."

"There's no time. He can stay in here."

"No, he can't. He'll get in trouble if he's not on the right floor."

"So will you!"

"Better me then him." Calum stated, tugging the blond down stairs.

Tapping his foot anxiously and fumbling with his key, Ashton slid the key back into his pocket and ran after the two boys.

"Wait for me."

"What are you doing?" Calum hissed, "save yourself."

"I'll be fine. If you get caught, I'll be with you."

"Thanks." Calum opened Luke's dorm room quickly and pushed the boy inside.

"Hey," Luke glared at Calum, taking the boy's hands away from his neck, "stop shoving."

Heavy footsteps stopped outside of the door. Calum turned around and slammed the door in the tall woman's face. Her gasp could be heard from behind the door.

"Calum, why would you do that!" Ashton shrieked.

"I panicked!" Calum tugged at his own black hair. Quickly, Ashton opened the door and smiled cheekily at Mrs. Lash. "Hello there." He said waving his hand back and forth.

The dark haired lady did not look impressed. She gave Ashton the death glare, disintegrating his smile. Slowly, Mrs. Lash walked forward, eyes never leaving Ashton's when the boy moved out of the way to allow her entrance.

Once she was fully inside her eyes scanned the room. "what is going on in here? Do you know what time it is?"

"No." Calum answered hastily, "I have no idea what time it is."

"It's 1:40 in the morning. You should be in your dorms and asleep." She scolded, in a loud whisper.

"Sorry." Calum lifted his shoulders innocently.

"Not as sorry as your going to be Mr. Hood. You know the rules and you deliberately broke them. Don't play innocent with me." She turned to the boy in the back of the room, "and you, Mr. Hemmings, are in an equal amount of trouble. Staying up late with friends in your dorm. Did you host this little shin-dig."

Ashton chuckled lightly earning himself the death glare again. Mrs. Lash was about to scream at him but Calum cut her off.

"Luke had nothing to do with his ma'am. It was my fault. I came into his room and bothered him. I just wanted someone to talk to."

"We have a counselor for that reason, Calum." Mrs. Lash sighed and put her hand on her forehead mumbling, "I don't get paid enough." Then with a heavy heart she concluded, "very well, I have no choice but to send you and Ashton down to the principals. Luke you are off the hook. But you better be in bed in the next five minutes."

Luke nodded and rushed to the bathroom to change into his PJs.

"Mr. Feldman is sleeping right now so you can speak with him after classes tomorrow. I will tell him to expect you. If you boys don't show up we will come and get you."

"Don't worry, we'll be there." Calum said walking out behind her. As he shut the door he said goodnight to Luke, then walked back to his dorm room.

"Well that sucks." Ashton climbed into bed, shut off the light,and staring at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, bro. I told you to save yourself. But at least you will get your first punishment over with. After that, it's all uphill." Calum said through the dark.

  
Ashton resisted the urge to argue back.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ignoring the signs is a good way to end up at the wrong destination.

Fat black and grey bricks cover the hallway to the principals office. It's where Ashton has been sitting for the past twenty minutes along with his buddy Calum. He tapped his black boot on the hard wooden floor while a pencil dangled from his mouth. He re-read the forty seven lines of "I will not break curfew" before continuing the mundane task all the way up to one hundred. Calum seemed more interested in straightening his maroon tie and playing with the hole in his black jeans. The boy was chewing gum, which was irking Ashton. He was trying to get this stupid punishment over with so he could get to dinner on time. It was almost 6:00pm.

Behind the closed door to the principals office, Ashton heard Feldmann yelling his head off. That man seemed pretty chill on most occasions, Ashton wonders what could have set him off. A loud popping sound, similar to a balloon being poked with a needle, echoed through the room sending shivers down Ashton's spine. His wide eyes met Calum's distracted zoned out face. Calum acted as though he had not heard anything out of the ordinary as he chewed his gum and hummed along to the music playing in his ear.

"So this is the principals." Ashton whispered, shivering in his seat. He felt isolated and cold.

"Yep. I told you it was nothing to fear." Calum said smiling, "feldy loves me."

"What is Feldmann doing in there? It sounds like he's jackhammering concrete."

"He's beating some kid's ass."

Ashton snorted laughter, "you're kidding right?"

"No." Calum said flatly. "He's probably paddling someone."

"I thought you said 'Feldy' was 'cool'?"

"No I said, Feldy loves me. Not any other kid."

"Why? Are you related to him?"

"No!" Calum sounded appalled. "I'm just awesome." Ashton backed off and went back to writing the annoying sentence over and over again. Just as his hand started to cramp, the door to Feldman's office opened. It peaked Ashton's curiosity - anyone would be curious as to who was being thrashed by Feldman right?

What Ashton saw was so surprising he nearly chocked on his own spit. Michael Clifford walked out of the room in a denim outfit. For someone who just had his ass handed to him, Michael wasn't showing any signs of remorse. In fact, he appeared more agitated than anything else. Striding towards the chairs, Michael plopped himself right next to Ashton without letting out a single sound of distress. Shit if the rest of the people in this place are as tough as him then Ashton's doomed. Swallowing a lump in his throat, Ashton watched as the tough guy with the black skinny jeans started writing "I will not skip class" repeatedly on his notebook paper.

It wasn't until he felt Calum kicking his foot that he realized he was staring at the back of Michael's head like an idiot. Thank God Michael didn't seem to notice. He couldn't help but think about the project they were a part of. He wondered if now would be a good time to bring it up.

Once they were finally released from the principals confinement, Ashton chased after the boy with dyed hair.

"Michael, hey, um, Hi I'm Ashton. We sort of met before. I'm in your group for Music class?"

Michael blinked a few times to show he was breathing but uninterested.

"So, um, you should come to my dorm tomorrow so we can film the music homework thingy." Ashton cringed at his own words. Music thingy? Who says that?

"Yeah. I'll see you there." Michael muttered, he was about to walk away but Ashton grabbed his sleeve.

"Can we exchange phone numbers. I know this secret place where we can meet to film the video."

His hope to grip Michael's curiosity was crushed when the smaller guy just groaned and pulled out his cell phone.   
They exchanged numbers and then he disappeared into the shadows of the halls. No offense, but the way Michael blended into the crowd was kinda sad especially since he had vibrant red hair.

The rest of the evening ran smoothly. Ashton sat on his bunk and watched YouTube videos on his phone all evening while Calum was at football practice. He came back at around 9:30pm, a half an hour late, and lounged around until ten. At last, he shut the lights out incase they have a nightly inspection but he stayed on his phone. Ashton ran an hand through his tousled hair. He watched Calum text away on his phone for a few minutes before biting the bullet.

"Dude it's past ten. You know it's against the rules to be using electronics so what the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us into trouble again? Because personally, I don't want to write until my hand breaks off or my hair turns grey."

Calum groaned, "Chill out. You are so uptight."

"You're always breaking the rules." Ashton shouted.

"Shhh." Calum put a finger to his lips. "listen, I'll stop texting in a few minutes. I just have to make sure Luke is alright and then we can go to sleep."

The tan boy took his finger away from his lips then went back to reading his phone leaving Ashton to sit silently in confusion.

"Why wouldn't Luke be ok?" Ashton pressed. He was tired of not understanding what was going on.

"Cause it's Wednesday"

"So?"

"So Luke gets p --- nervous. He gets nervous on Wednesday." Calum explained. Obviously, he was covering up something. A secret that happens to Luke every Wednesday, but what could that be? Ashton's breathing picked up a bit.

"What were you about to say?"

"He's fine. I just got the text from him so we can go to sleep now." Calum turned off the light and the conversation ended.

___________________

The next morning in English Class, Ashton was assigned a book for homework however his teacher read some of it in class. It was the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. Ashton had never heard of it before, but according to Calum, this is a story he has been reading since middle school.

Mr Frey read, "When I had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock --still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had I now to fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises."

Ashton read along with Mr. Frey, feeling his own heart beat just as quick. Too many secrets were floating around him. For one, Luke obviously had something going on -something bad. Then there was Michael, who always acts like a tough guy, but sits alone. There is something going on with him, too -something bad. Ashton wondered how long it would take for his friends to become insane.

By the time English was over, Ashton felt like an empty shell walking to Math class with a quiet Luke. Miss Lash decided to teach the class how to solve Absolute Values today. She had an equation on the board: |x - 5| = 3

"To solve this, the first thing you need to do is set the equation to positive and negative 3." She explained, and Ashton was already lost.

x-5 = 3 and x - 5 = -3

Ashton squinted, writing down the equation even though he didn't understand. The answer was x = 8 and x = 2.

"The thing you need to remember in math, is always pay attention to the signs." Miss Lash said and that struck Ashton as something important in life as it is in math. In life it is important to pay attention to the signs. But what were the signs his friends were telling him?

He thought about it for the rest of the day. Even after classes were over.

"Ashton we need to get started on our homework assignment." Calum said, shifting his feet on the coffee table. Ashton, Luke and Calum were hanging out in their secret roof hangout, just waiting for Michael to show up.

"You sure you told him where to meet us?" Luke asked.

"Positive. I even texted him four times."

"Then he's not coming." Calum said, sitting up, and tossing the laptop onto Ashton's lap.

"Set it up and let's get started." Calum muttered. He loved singing, but singing in front of his class made his skin crawl. For once Ashton couldn't agree more.

"I'm afraid." Luke's voice was barely audible.

Calum sighed. "You and me both kid." Ashton handed Luke the laptop.

Luke took his guitar in his shaking hands then looked over at Calum and Ashton for advice. He did not expect Ashton to say,

"I can't do this."

"What do you mean? We have too!" Luke squeaked.

"If Michael's not here, we shouldn't do it." Ashton said, clenching his jaw and glaring at his cell phone.

"Ok, but it's due tomorrow, so we have to do it".

Calum stood up, nodding his head, "Ashton's right. If Michael wants to be a bad ass and blow off the assignment then we should too."

Luke furrowed his eye brows, "how does that make any sense?"

"It will show everyone that we can be bad asses too." Calum smiled triumphantly.

Ashton cringed, "yeah that's not why I'm not singing. I personally think we should fail so Michael can't get any credit."

Luke shook his head, "he won't get credit if he doesn't sing. come on guys! I can't do this by myself." Luke said desperately.

"Well I guess we're not doing our homework." Calum smirked, as if this was his plan all along.

Luke's nose flared, and his lips formed a tight line. "Fine! I'll do it myself." He growled.

Lifting the laptop open, Luke immediately pressed the record button before anyone could stop him.

"Oh my God, he's on. He's live. Holy fuck, he's gonna die". Calum whispered gripping Ashton tightly.

Prying his hands off, Ashton shrugged his shoulders. "We can't stop him now."

Luke froze up drastically. It was painful to watch. His hands trembled as he struggled to find the chords on his guitar his mouth hanging open as if he were in awe or terror.

Then, Luke, found some hidden strength deep within himself. Looking off in a different direction, anywhere but the camera, he strummed the chords and sang. "I found God on the corner of First in Amistad, Where the west was all but one. All alone, Smoking his last cigarette. I said where you been?  
He said, ask anything...  
Where were you/ When everything was falling apart?/ When all my days /Were spent by the telephone/ That never rang/ And all I needed was a call/ That never came /From the corner of First and Amistad.   
Lost and insecure  
You found me, you found me  
Lying on the floor  
Surrounded, surrounded  
Why'd you have to wait?  
Where were you, where were you?  
Just a little late  
You found me, you found me"  
He shut the webcam off, breathing in deeply. Ashton almost cried when he saw Luke smile the widest smile in the whole world.   
"I did it." He whispered, mainly to himself.   
He really did.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we might as well dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is a really long chapter. I feel like I just wrote a novel.
> 
> Enjoy!

It was Friday evening, Ashton sat with Luke while watching the school football game. Brandon Conley had the ball, he kicked it towards the goal post, but it ricocheted off, bouncing right into the other team's foot.

A chorus of groans and cuss words swirled in Ashton's ear making him dizzy as he sat panting in the bleachers. It was a hot day for the middle of January. Or maybe, it was the mass of people packed together in one spot that made breathing unbearable.

"That brandon thinks he's a real hot shot, doesn't he." Ashton asked his furry blonde haired friend, Luke. The younger boy flashed his pearly smile, "yeah, he's always like that. But don't worry. Calum's got this."

After Giving Luke a skeptical expression, Ashton sat back in his seat and waited for Calum to "dazzle" him.

They were outside in the humid air, with bugs swimming around them, but the amount of people packed together made everything feel warmer. When nothing interesting happened, Ashton stood up saying he was going to get some drinks. Luke's grunt in response confirmed Ashton's idea to get some soda pop.

The curly blonde made his way down the bleacher steps and found a Giant popcorn selling venue.

"Hey!" A girl shouted from behind him, "you cut me."

"What?" Ashton turned to the beautiful blonde haired girl who was bitching at him.

"Oh, sorry we're you in line first?" He asked.

She nodded, popping her bubble gum loudly. The look on her face told Ashton he needed to move over immediately. But he didn't.

"What's your name, and why are you here? This is an all boys school." He asked.

She laughed an annoying high pitched laugh, but stopped abruptly when she realized he was serious. "I'm from across the street. I go to the girls school. It's run by the same people and they let us mingle on Friday nights." She rolled her eyes dramatically, "obviously you are new. Especially if you don't know who I am."

Ashton shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really care who you are. I just want some popcorn. "

The girl's striking green eyes nearly popped out of her head. She whispered something to one of her girls that were standing around her then they walked away laughing. Ashton sighed heavily, it wasn't the first time people made fun of him.

He carried the popcorn and drinks back to the stands, watching as Luke bounced so high, he nearly fell out of his seat. Ashton snickered softly, sitting back in his spot and handing Luke the junk food.

"Thanks." Luke grabbed the cup out of Ashton's hand then pointed to the field. "Do you see that?"

Squinting, Ashton peered out into the field spotting kids from the other team running with the ball.

"Yeah, It doesn't look like we're doing too well."

"No." Luke's voice resembled a whiny child. "I'm talking about the score board. Look we're ahead by two! Calum made his awesome come back while you were gone."

Ashton stared at Luke taking a second to take it all in. He wasn't sure what was more amazing: the fact that Calum actually made a comeback or the fact that Luke knew he was going to make the comeback.

"How does he do that?"

"Oh Calum's always pulling his secret trick right around the middle of the game."

"Why doesn't he wait for the end of the game?"

"Oh he does." Luke wiggled his eyebrows mischievously.

Ashton nodded, and sipped his drink waiting for the big finale. A shadow appeared from behind them, Ashton didn't question it until someone placed a hand on his back.

He and Luke jolted, turning to face a laughing boy. It was Daniel, one of Brandon's closest friends.

"Hey I'm sorry about the scare, lads." He said, finishing his laughing streak, "I was wondering if you two wanted to come to our party tonight?"

Ashton gulped, "a party?"

"Yeah me and Brandon are throwing a little get together, nothing big. But I hope I can see the two of you there. Calum already said yes, so it would be weird if you didn't come." He took his hand off their shoulders then ran off to harass a few of the girls that were sitting around. Ashton could hear faint shouts of "get lost creep." And "stop touching me."

Ashton scoffed to himself, "yeah right. Like we'd ever go to a party with those assholes."

Luke sipped his drink. "Sometimes we do."

"What!" Ashton snapped harshly.

Luke shrugged, "sometimes we go just to learn about his dirty tactics. Calum has a theory."

"Oh and what does Calum think?"

"He thinks Brandon cheats at singing. I mean he may not be wrong, think about it. there's no way Brandon can be good at everything and yet the kid is on sports teams and academic debates and now music! Unless he's some kind of a prodigy, Calum thinks he's a rotten cheater and thief. Plus he's good looking, perfectly behaved -which we already know is a lie because he throws parties all the time - and he's Feldmans nephew what more proof do you need."

Cheers erupted from the crowd as Calum kicked the goal winning soccer ball.

"Aw man! I missed it."

When the crowd finally dispersed, Ashton and Luke met up with Calum on the field.

"Are people going back to their dorms already? It's Friday night man! I just won us the game. We need something fun to do."

Ashton bit his lip. If he doesn't remind Calum about the party invitation then Calum won't want to go.

"Well there's that party we could go to." Luke said about of the blue. Ashton's face twitched for a second. Fucking Luke. It was obvious when Calum jumped up and down that they were going. "Yes! Let's go."

The kids ran down the soccer field past the gate to the entrance of the boys school. Now they were standing on the girls territory.

"Wait, where are we going?" Ashton asked, pulling Calum back by the shoulder.

"We're going to a party, Ash. Keep up man".

"Calum, bud, maybe you need your eyes checked but we're in the girls school."

"Yeah. That's where brandon has his parties."

Ashton furrowed his eyebrows.

"Oh right, your still the new kid." Calum said with a goofy smile that Ashton kinda wanted to punch.

"Thanks Brah." He spat instead.

Calum ignored the agitated tone, "what I meant is, you don't know about Brandon's girlfriend. Everyone else knows her. She's the most popular girl in the world."

Ashton scoffed, "I think that's a bit exaggerative, don't you think?"

"Her name is Maria Stewart but everyone calls her Barbie."

Ashton rolled his eyes, "I think I know who your talking about. I just met her. Is she a green-eyed girl with long braided hair?"

"That's her." Calum smiled.

"She's kind of a bitch don't you think?"

"Oh completely, but you gotta admit she's kinda hot." Calum winked, then ran inside the building.

They knocked aggressively on door 142, Barbie's room. The music was so loud Ashton was surprised anyone could hear them knocking at all, but someone opened the door for them. A tall, thin girl with long wavy brown hair and a pair of overalls.

"Who are you?" She asked with a sugar sweet voice.

"Calum Hood, the sexy football play." He wiggled his eyebrows seductively.

"Oh good God." Ashton muttered, shoving Calum out of the way. "We were invited to the party?"

A muscular guy walked up behind the girl, placing his arm around her shoulders, while staring the three outsiders down.

"Who are they?"

The girl, clearly annoyed, shoved him off and brushed the feeling off of her shoulder.

"They're students at the summers institution, who else would they be." She snapped at the annoying guy. She flipped her hair and walked back into the party, leaving the door wide open. Calum, Ashton and Luke walked inside and immediately recognized the song playing.

"Ya'll gonna make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here."

It was a sweet place, the girls dorm room. It was fairly similar to the boys place, but they had extra space. There was a dinning hall and staircase, then up the dark brown wooden stairs were all the dorm rooms.

Girls in short skirts were standing on the stairs, some of them were in uniform, some of them were in party outfits. Boys stood in Blazers and dress shirts, surrounding the women. Ashton gawked at his own appearance; he was severely underdressed in a simple white tee shirt and black jeans. Calum was worse though, he was in his sweaty white jersey and black shorts.

Ashton, Luke and Calum followed overalls up the steps. She was walking relatively fast. A girl bumped into Ashton at the top of the stairs. "Hey cutie, wanna make out?"

Ashton guided her into someone else's arms, "make out with him."

"Okay!" She cheered, plastering her lips against the other boy's.

The girl in overalls went into a room and shut the door right in Calum's face.

"What's her deal?" He asked Luke. Not surprisingly, Luke didn't know the answer.

"Hey guys, maybe we should get out of here." Ashton shouted over top of the music.

"What? No way man." Calum shook his head, "we need to enjoy our life a little."

"This is not how I choose to enjoy life."

Calum jumped when a glass bottle was shattered. "Alright fine. We'll leave in a minute. Give me a second to find someone."

"Who?"

"A girl." Luke answered when Calum didn't.

"I'll be back." Calum said, as her walked down the steps. Ashton frowned, how the hell was Calum going to find anyone in this hell hole.

A large stack of empty beer cans was placed on the table. More and more people were placing their drinks on it, trying to make it go higher.

Calum decided to explore the dance floor. With his lips pressed into a tight-line, he moved through the crowd, keeping his hands to himself to avoid any trouble. His heart skipped a beat when he spotted his girl, a black mess of curls and dark eyeliner dripping from her eyes from sweat.

"Nia!" He shouted catching her attention.

"Calum? Is that you?" She squinted past the really tall guy standing in their way. Moving awkwardly to get around people without bumping them, Nia made it inches away from Calum's face. "I was hoping you would come."

"You know I would never miss an opportunity to see you." He whispered in her ear.

Her cheeks were red, either from the complement or the heat of the room.

"Let's get out of here. It's getting way too crowded."

"Sounds good to me." Nia took Calum by the hand and led him out of the party.

Ashton and Luke were making their way through the party, trying to avoid bumping people as well when loud cheering caught their attention.

"Drink! Drink! Drink!" The crowd chanted and cheered as the shirtless red haired boy, also known as Michael Clifford, drowned his drink. He was standing on the table dancing his ass off, and nearly tripping over his legs.   
Ashton grew immensely terrified that Michael was going to loose his balance and fall.

"What is he doing?" Luke asked, same worried expression on his face.

Michael leaped off the table about four feet in the air and crashed down on the table with all the food. Everyone gasped, the music stopped and people started whispering things like, "is he alright?" "Oh my God is he dead?"

Ashton looked around waiting for someone to do something. Of course, no one did. So Ashton pulled Luke over to Michael's side.

"Get his feet, I'll carry his head."

"Where are we taking him?"

"Outside." Ashton said, lifting Michael up by his under arms. Luke and Ashton walked outside with the unconscious boy.

"Lay him down on the lawn." Ashton ordered.

Michael groaned when his head was rested on the ground. He sat up slowly, grabbing around for something. Ashton realized that something was probably a plastic bag when Michael emptied the contents of his stomach all over the grass.

"Ew, gross." Luke whined, turning his nose away.

"Hey are you okay?" Ashton asked the sickly looking boy. Michael's dull green eyes looked up at him slowly before he bent over again and threw up.

Ashton frowned, "here," he showed a bottle of water in Michael's face.

"Bro." Michael slurred.

"Oh and have some aspirin." Luke added, pulling out a bottle of pills from his pants pocket. Michael looked up at the blonde and squeezed his eyes shut. Refusing to open them again.

"Luke where'd you get that." Ashton questioned, looking at the bottle of pills.

Luke's eyes had that flicker again, and Ashton really wanted to know what the hell that look meant.

"The nurse gave it to me." He muttered, "but I think Clifford could use it more than me right about now."

"Shut up Luke." Michael slurred, "I don't need your fucking help."

"No, but you could use something for that headache I'm sure you'll have tomorrow." Luke smiled, pouring a few tabs in Michael's hand.

"Why are you doing this?" Michael asked opening his eyes again. "Why are you two helping me. You hate me."

"I don't hate you." Ashton said, patting Michael's back and the green-eyed boy seemed even more confused.

"Well, I might hate you, but who needs affection anymore? Right?" Luke said, placing his hand on Michael's forehead. The older boy slapped it away, and Luke smiled, "see now that's the kind of hate I like."

Michael groaned, "God. You two are so weird. Can't you just leave me alone."

"No can do, Michael. You might die in your sleep."

"Yeah we wouldn't want you to throw up and choke would we?" Ashton said, rolling Michael on his side. The smaller boy hummed.

Meanwhile, Calum and Nia were hiding out in the bathroom upstairs, but a couple was having sex behind the shower curtain so they ended up going into the only locked room in the whole place: Amber's room."

"Hey Amber thanks for shutting the door on my face, earlier." Calum complained, tossing his sweaty jersey to the side.

"I'm sorry, Calum, but you had a new guy with you."

"That was my new roommate. He's annoying, but harmless."

"Yeah, well he doesn't know anything about us. You can't expect me to let you just bring him into this mess."

"It's fine, Amber. He doesn't know anything and I won't tell him anything." Calum promised.

"Good. I see you found Nia." She said, trying to change the conversation.

"Yeah." Nia said smiling widely, "we are going to watch a movie, do you mind?"

"No, what one do you want to watch?"

"Whatever is on Netflix." Calum said pulling Nia on top of him so they could cuddle.

"Amber! Miss Shelly is here!" The blonde haired girl, Barbie, shouted as she slammed open the door. "I don't even know what she's doing here! She never checks on me!"

"Alright, calm down." Amber said, "let's go out the window like we planned."

Brandon, who was right behind Maria, shut the door and raced over to the window. "Of course we're going out the way we planned."   
Brandon muttered.

"What about the other girls?" Maria asked worriedly.

Brandon gave her a hard look, but said in a soothing voice, "Maria baby, we need to go. Both of us have reputations to keep."

"Come on Amber." The girl's connected hands. Nia joined in and waited for Calum to join. "Are you coming?"

Brandon impatiently tapped his feet. "Hurry up, loser, we have to leave, now!"

"You guys go. I have a few friends I need to stay with."

"Calum, if you get caught, how will you come back on Saturday?" Amber asked panicking.

"I'll find a way. Just go."

No one had to ask Brandon twice. He jumped out that window like a fly on the run. His girlfriend followed closely behind. Once everyone was gone, Calum slowly creeped open the door to find security grabbing the boys and the headmasters grabbing the girls.

"Get to my office right now." A headmaster scolded a hipster girl with nothing but a bra on and long pink and blue wavy hair. Calum couldn't resist staring at her butt as she passed. He snapped himself out of his horny feelings and decided to find his friends in this zoo.

He was stopped by a cop knocking him to the ground, handcuffing him, then carrying him out to the car. Leaning his head against the door, Calum stared out the window, wishing he had some fresh air. This car smelled like puke. It was coming from behind his seat.

When he turned he found his friends. Luke and Ashton were sitting in the car along with a very sick Michael.

"Guys! I was looking for you." Calum looked down and Michael, frowning, "what happened to him?"

"Too much to drink." Ashton informed briefly. He had bigger concerns. For instance, what was going to happen to him when he got back to the boarding school.

"I didn't know Barbie had beer in her dorm." Calum said, looking at Ashton with very confused eyes.

"Well there was a pile of beer cans stacked in the corner. Someone brought them." Ashton stated with a shrug. It's nothing new: beer at a party.

Eventually, they pulled up to their school and were loaded into the auditorium. Kids from the whole school came pouring into the area.

Ashton, Luke, Calum, and Michael were close enough to the teachers to hear their conversations.

"I like kids, I think I'll be able to teach them." A young lady said to Mr. Feldmann.

"Let's not have you fall into the allusion too quickly. The children here are hoodlums, throw outs all of them. Most of the children you will be dealing with are fourteen, but some will be fifteen. This school holds boys from ages 14 to 18. They act like silly little kids."

"I did too at their age." She said.

"Yes I'm sure." Mr. Feldmann laughed, "but their trouble is they think they are adults already. No, I'm not going to kid you Miss Sanders, if you take this job you will be accepting a tough job."

"It's a tough school, huh?"

He nodded, then put a hand over her shoulder, "if you'll excuse me, I need to make a scolding speech."

The lady nodded sympathetically. Ashton wondered what position she was thinking of taking over. Was a teacher thinking of retiring?

The loud chattering auditorium silenced when Mr. Feldmann took his stand at the podium.

"Quiet." He called out to those remaining talkers. Tension filled the air. Ashton looked around the room at the kids serious faces. No one was happy about their Friday being interrupted.

"Thank you," Mr. Feldmann said, "now, I'm sorry to ruin everyone's Friday evening, but I got a phone call from the girl's school informing me that half of my boys were at a party in the girl's dorm. Now I am very upset with you."

"Aw is that so, Feldy?" A boy in the crowd shouted. Ashton winced as Feldmann's face grew bright red.

"I try to give you boys a chance to do things on your own and what do you do? You act like lunatics! Well I'm sorry but this won't do. No, it won't do at all. Until you kids can learn to have fun on Friday nights without breaking the rules then you will no longer have Friday nights."

The crowd whisperered quietly to one another, while Luke leaned in a whispered something to Calum.

"What did he say?" Ashton asked.

Calum smirked. Making eye contact with the principal, Calum responded, "he's just wondering how Feldy plans on taking away an evening?"

Feldmann slammed his hand down on the podium. "I will be taking away all Friday events. There will be no more football games, no more desserts, no more club meetings, and no more movie nights. It will be classes then straight to the dorms."

"Are you kidding me!" A kid in the back shrieked. After the match was lit, the entire place exploded in anger.

"Fuck you, Feldmann!"  
"Liar!"  
"That's not fair you son of a bitch."  
"Take it back."

Shrills and threats were coming from every different direction. Ashton cringed as his ears vibrated.

"Silence!" Feldmann shouted, but the room was beyond reasonable negotiation. One kid threw a paper ball at the stage. Pretty soon the entire stage was covered in paper balls and water bottles. Ashton even noticed Calum throwing one. When he gave the tan boy a look that screamed 'what are you doing', Calum simply shrugged.

"ENOUGH." Feldmann screamed whacking the table with a cane.

The room finally settled down. "If you continue to be rowdy, I will come to each of your dorms and smack you one, every night for a week."

Ashton twitched his fist and clenched his jaw. Just try it, Feldmann. He wanted to say.   
From the corner of his eye he saw Luke's nose twitch and Calum's eyes downcast.

A weird sense of nausea took over his stomach as he listened to Feldmann's speech. "I hope you all notice I've had another visit from the police."

Michael was sweating heavily, leaning his chin on Ashton's shoulder. His fist was gripping a fist full of Luke's hair. Tugging it every so often just to piss the kid off.

"I'm expected to tell the police to let you off. That's what I'm expected to do, so that's what I'll do. But mark my words, if this happens again I will not vouge for you because now you know that you are not allowed to throw parties and enter the girl's dormitory."

"Ow." Luke shouted as Michael tugged his hair harshly. Mr. Feldmann's eyes shot over to Luke and his small group of friends. They slumped their shoulders trying to be as small as possible.

"Quiet." He hissed. "You have been warned. Meeting dismissed."

It didn't take long for the kids to race out of the auditorium and go to their dorms. Ashton, Calum, Luke and Michael were waiting by the stairs as they were told.

Mr. Feldmann patted his sweaty forehead with a towel before gesturing the four boys on the auditorium stage.

Luke spun around and whispered something into Calum's ear. His friend held him, and rubbed his back. "It'll be alright, Lu, I know feldy remember? I'm not gonna let him hurt you."

Luke clutched the back of Calum's shirt as they climbed the steps.

"You wanted to see us, sir?" Calum questioned boldly.

Mr. Feldmann nodded with a frown. Ashton bit his lip, this wasn't good. He could think of only two ways this was going to go down. One, he would be expelled or two he would be beat.

"It has come to my attention that you three are causing a lot of trouble in this school." Feldmann began, and Ashton took a double take. He said three? Last time Ashton checked their was four of them standing on the stage. Feldmanns eyes landed on Ashton's, "Ashton, you are new here. And I'm afraid the crowd you are following is not a very good one. I would advise you to behave yourself or you might end up like these three."

Pulling a hand through his thick black hair, Calum rolled his eyes and mouthed the words unbelievable into Luke's ear.

"What was that, Mr. Hood?"

"Nothing, Feldy." Calum cheered, "I guess I just thought we had an agreement, but I can see you don't really care about that. It's fine. It's cool. It's whatever. Just know, I'll being calling my dad tonight."

"It's Mr. Feldmann to you, and yes Calum, I have an agreement with your parents. However, we had an agreement when you came to this school. When you entered those doors you agreed to follow the rules I have set up and according to this record, you have broken at least 80 of them."

"Now you're just being dramatic."

"I don't like doing this Calum, but you leave me little choice."

Calum furrowed his brows together, "doing what? What did I even do other than sneak out? So I made a mistake. It happens."

"Ah, but this isn't the first time you left campus, is it?" Ashton noticed Calum's eyes drift to the back wall. He could tell the boy was trying to shut down a familiar defense mechanism that Ashton used often. Feldmann stood there smirking, knowing full well he had dirt over Calum.

"That's what I thought." Feldmann said with a huff. "And you, Mr. Hemming's." He pointed at the blonde. "Sleeping in a different dorm every night? That is completely unacceptable. The rules clearly state that you are to be in your own dorm room at 11:00."

"How did you know -"

"I know more than you think."

Calum pulled Luke behind him, "leave him out of this Feldy. He's only doing what I tell him to." Ashton's never seen a more intense staring contest in his entire life. If Calum could shoot lasers out of his eyes Feldmann would be fried to a crisp.

"For the last time, my name is Mr. Feldmann." The man retorted, gulping in air and puffing it out in annoyance.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just leave Luke out of this."

"Luke is in as much trouble as you are, Calum. He can think for himself. He's a very smart boy. And don't think I forgot about you, Michael."

The sorry looking drunk boy managed to give a half ass smile, "of course you can't forget 'bout meee. I'm Michael fucking clifford." He slurred.

"Yes. Yes you are. You are trouble that's for sure. Listen boys. I'm giving you one last warning to shape it up or else the next time you are in my office I'm giving you the stick, is that clear?"

"Yes Mr. Feldmann." They all whispered except for Calum.

"Good. Until then, I'm going to take away your privileges. In addition to losing Friday night events you three will lose free time as well. Tomorrow I expect to see you in my office during free time. You may go." He said, eyeing Ashton's roommate the whole way out the door.

Once the boys were halfway down the dirt road, out of the building, Calum started ranting to his shoes, "that stupid, white-haired, mother fucking asshole! If he thinks he can take away my things then he has another thing coming!"

Ashton stared at the back of Calum's head, trying to quiet the judgmental voices in his head screaming that Calum is acting spoiled. Ashton was sure he had his reasons for flipping out at Feldmann. Most people would panic, but Calum showed true bravery standing up to the 'man', either that or he showed true stupidity.

"Ow. Michael, stop!" Luke shouted, spinning around to face Michael head on. "You're hurting my head!"

The drunk boy laughed like a hyena but ignored Luke's request to stop pulling hair.   
"You're hair is so spiky and fluffy. How is that possible?"

Smoothing over his sore scalp, Luke huffed out a sassy remark, "it's call a quiff," but he resisted the urge to add a curse word at the end of his sentence. Asshole.

Since Michael wouldn't stop tugging at Luke's blonde hair some strands actually fell out. Only then did Ashton decide to pull Michael away from the fuming blonde.

"Aw look, the little bunny scrunches his nose when he is angry." Michael teased.

"Shut up." Luke growled. That was certainly something Ashton has never heard before. A growl from the sweetest human being. Wow, Michael really knew how to get under Luke's skin, that was for sure. In a flash, Michael had Luke's body slammed up against a wall. His face was red and dripping with sweat as his hands wrapped around Luke's neck.

"Stop it!" Calum shrieked, pushing Michael's side in a desperate attempt to save the younger lads life. Michael wouldn't budge. It's as if his feet turned into stone. Pushing harder, Calum managed to shift Michael over a little, just as Luke's face turned blue. Unfortunately for Luke, Michael's grip was still strong. He was completely cut off from all air supply and Ashton could only imagine how painful that must have been. A second later, a rake came crashing down over Michael's head knocking him out cold. Luke dropped to the ground coughing, spluttering, and gasping for air. His entire body was racketing with shivers.

Calum took one long look at Ashton, who was holding two pieces of a broken rake, then back to Luke who was curled up on the floor before lunging at a barely conscious Michael.

"You son of a bitch." Calum started kicking his ribs repeatedly. Ashton was quick to lift Calum over his shoulders and carry him off.

"Put me down!" Calum screamed punching Ashton's back harshly.

"Stop fighting him. Your making it worse." Ashton said as he put Calum back on the ground. As soon as his feet touched the pavement, Calum bolted back up the dirt road. Luckily, Ashton tackled him down. Dirt and dust flew everywhere as the two boys wrestled.

"Stop it! Go to your dorm!"

"Did you see what he did to Luke? That bastard!"

"Calum. Go. To. Your. Room. I have to go back and pick Luke up and then I have to call the nurse to see if Michael's okay, so please, go home."

Calum open and closed his mouth like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. "Fine." He gritted out between clenched teeth.

When Ashton got back to the place where Luke was, Michael was gone. Luke looked up at him with empty blue eyes. "I'm fine." He croaked out.

"Alright." Ashton believed him, for the sake of getting him to his dorm room and into bed. Once they were in the dorm room, Luke fell asleep on Calum's stomach. Ashton decided to crawl into bed with them.

He wanted to feel close to someone.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They say we're losers and were alright with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is one of my favorite chapter’s so far. It’s also like 50 pages :~|

It's officially 7am. Breakfast is over and he has 15 minutes to get to class. Too bad for Ashton that he is in the library right now trying to finish his english paper that was due today but he started writing it at 4am. It wasn't like him to procrastinate but with that party he went to last night throwing him off balance, Ashton forgot all about his essay assignment on the Tell Tale Heart. The library was incredibly silent, except for the soft roar of the computer. The silence made it hard for Ashton to concentrate because his thoughts were easily running through his head. He just needs a conclusion paragraph then he's off to the races. Unfortunately there was not enough time so Ashton copied and pasted his intro paragraph, something that will cost him at least ten points, then printed the three paged essay out and ran to class.

He felt like a fool running from building to building but he had to do what he had to do in order to get to class on time. His backpack bounced off his back every time his right leg leaped. The fight of stairs almost caused him to pass out, but he made it in time, right before the bell rang and Mr. Frey shut the door. Thank God, he thought as he walked over to his seat where he noticed Calum and Luke snickering at him.

"What did you do? Go for a five mile jog?" Calum asked with a laugh while slapping his arm playfully.

"And how early did you wake up?" Luke asked, "because I got up at six to go to the bathroom and you weren't there."

"I was up at four writing this damn paper." Ashton said, holding up the unorganized pile of papers and shaking them for emphasis. Sliding back in his chair, Ashton tried to catch his breath now that he was done running. He was still panting like a happy dog, but at least he saved his grade. Not turning in this paper would have been academic suicide. He presented his paper to Mr. Frey the moment he asked for it. Glaring, Ashton watched as Luke turn in his ten page, neatly organized, stapled paper. Luke blushed as Ashton gave him a you suck smirk. "That's so unfair." Ashton muttered looking down at his own unstapled, mess of an assignment. This wasn't going to be his best grade, but at least he got it done. He could never afford a zero. When Calum turned in a stack of papers as well, Ashton nearly lost it.

"When did you have time to type that?"

Calum shrugged, "I have my moments, Ash."

Opening his notebook that was filled with more doodles than notes, Ashton began drawing more and scribbling the occasional topic definitions here and there. Class was incredibly boring today, and due to the previous events, Ashton was not in the mood to pay attention.

Once class was over, Ashton walked with Luke to Math class. It became a habit to meet up together and walk to certain places. Along the way they usually will stop at the cafeteria to grab some coffee. Luke being a huge fan of the frappuccinos means he constantly needs to fuel up before math class.

"You look well rested." Ashton admitted, noticing how Luke's eyes didn't seem so dark with bags anymore. Maybe the kid was actually getting some rest.

The younger lad nodded in response gathering his drinks and handing Ashton one.

"I've been sleeping pretty well ever since Calum promised me I wouldn't have to go back to my dorm."

"You really don't like your dorm, do you?" Ashton asked after a momentary break of silence, "What is it? Is it your roommate? Does he beat you up?" It was a joke, but Ashton held some truthful curiosity behind his question. Someone or something has been scaring Luke for a long time. He could see it in Luke's eyes. It could be Michael Clifford. Obviously, Ashton has seen first hand what he can do to Luke, but still, something told Ashton that Luke was afraid of more than Michael Clifford.

"Shut up." Luke laughed, sipping his drink, "my roommate likes me, says I'm cute."

That's all Luke said, no denial, no sassy remark, just a half ass explanation? Ashton can't handle not being in the loop. He needed to know more, but Luke was so fragile. He was afraid to ask the boy and accidentally set him off into a panic attack. If Luke was sleeping well and eating well then who was Ashton to get in the way and mess that up.

"Come on, we should get to class." Ashton offered instead of commenting further.

Math class was helplessly boring. Ashton wrote down equations he didn't understand until his hand fell off. Luke answered every question correctly on his math homework while Ashton received a 40%. When class ended Mrs. Lash called him to her desk. Blushing, Ashton tilted his head down to look at his feet. He knew she was going to lecture him about his failing grade. He deserved to be lectured. After all, he was a failure.

"Have a seat Ashton." She said, taking her glasses off. Sitting beside her, Ashton felt himself leaning as far away as possible. It was awkward to be this close to his teacher. Especially Mrs. Lash.

"I know you are new to this school and being new can be very difficult. But If you do not understand the lessons you need to tell me so I can get you some help. Failing a semester here is not good on your transcript, Ashton. Not to mention you would have to attend our summer program."

Ashton shrugged, "that's not so bad." He said quietly, "it's better here than home." Immediately after he said that he grimaced. Wishing he could take back what he just said, Ashton's blush grew darker as he tried to save himself. "I didn't mean that. I mean - I don't know what I mean. I was just thinking that summer school wouldn't be so bad because this school isn't so bad. Not that I thought it would be! It's just -yeah."

Luckily, Mrs Lash chose to focus on his school work and not his words. "Do you want a tutor? I think a tutor would help you immensely. You are good friends with Mr. Hemmings right?"

Ashton knew where this was going, "yes ma'am I am, but I can't ask Luke to -"

"Very well. He will meet with you tomorrow during break time to study with you. Don't feel badly. Luke gets paid for his work." His teacher smiled at him before gesturing him out of the classroom. Apparently, Luke was going to help Ashton with his math homework.

The day was moving by quickly. Michael was nowhere to be seen since last night. He wasn't in music class with the other boys which was driving Calum insane.

"How are we suppose to do our school project if he won't show up!" Calum asked irritated that once again they were forced to think about the school project by themselves.

"It's better this way. He's a jerk anyway." Luke muttered and this time Ashton didn't bother to correct him. Perhaps Ashton was wrong about Michael. Maybe the guy really was some big jackass that picked on smaller, younger students. But if that was true why did he always look so sad when he sat alone at Lunch?

By sixth period, Ashton, Luke, and Calum were in gym class. Mr. Doe called Michael's name but he didn't respond.

"He's absent." A boy with the green Mohawk said irritably.

They were about to start running laps when the nurse and principal walked in. Oh shit, what if this was about last night. Ashton gripped his shirt tightly, praying this wasn't about him or his friends. The last thing he needs is for Michael to rat them all out.

"Attention students. This is a meeting about your annual health screenings."

A bunch of kids groaned. One brunette in particular threw his shoe on the ground causing a loud slap to echo around the gymnasium. Mr. Feldmann pointed a finger at him saying dangerously, "go to my office."

"Whatever." The kid, Daniel, muttered walking away with his head held high.

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, you will have your health screenings this coming week. All of you will report to the nurses office instead of the gym next Thursday." Mr. Feldmann stepped back and allowed nurse rose to speak.

"Hello boys. I will be giving you the screening. It's going to test your height, weight, blood pressure, eye sight, hearing, reflexes, spinal column, and you will get your yearly shots here if you have not done so at home with your parents."

All of the blood drained from Ashton's face. Needles. God he hated needles with a burning passion. They were so sharp and long. It grossed him out. He had only been to the doctors twice in his life and he still managed to faint when getting a shot.

"Ashton, I said, are you okay?" Calum asked worriedly. He was shaking Ashton's arm waiting for him to stop staring off into space.

"Yeah I'm fine." He mumbled looking at Calum like he was crazy.

"Bro you totally spaced out and you went all white. I've only seen Luke do that before, not you. It scared me shitless."

"Sorry." Ashton said feeling guilty now. "I have a thing against needles."

"What did needles ever do to you?" Calum laughed.

"They hurt me." Ashton answered with a chuckle but it was the truth.

"I know mate. It's alright a lot of people fear needles." Calum said. He placed his hand on Ashton's back and rubbed it comfortingly.

"It's weird comforting you." He admitted into Ashton's ear. The curly haired boy agreed but it still felt nice to be comforted even if it was weird. Soon nurse rose left and the kids continued to do their exercises. However, principal Feldmann called Calum over to him. Ashton and Luke constantly were looking in the direction of their friend, trying to make out what he was saying but to no use. Ashton could tell one thing, Calum was angry. The boy's fist was balled up, tightly clenched together and his face was red with a vein nearly popping out of the side. Feldmann led Calum out of the gymnasium leaving Ashton to guess what was happening. Luke turned to him with fearful blue eyes.

"Don't worry." Ashton found himself saying this before he could even think, "Calum will be fine." Even though he had no idea if Calum would be fine - the boy could be expelled for all he knew - Ashton felt the need to calm Luke whenever he was nervous. Gulping, Luke went back to doing his push-ups. Finally, class ended after what felt like forever. Luke had art class and Ashton had french but they both decided to ditch it and find Calum as soon as possible.

"If Feldmann beat him -" Luke let the threat hang on his lips. Ashton nearly had to jog to keep up with the blonde.

"He's probably just talking to him about the health examination shit because he's an athlete and all." Ashton tried to reason, "I'm sure he's fine."

Ignoring Ashton, Luke ran up the steps of the Mariliam and burst through the doors. One of the friendliest students, Greg something, greeted Luke at the door. "Hey are you here to finish your chores for the week?" He asked flashing Luke a smile.

"No." Luke spat, but he quickly apologized. The black haired blue-eyed boy laughed. "Don't sweat it kid. Hey, you're one of the smartest students I know. I'm sure you'll find time to fit your chores in."

"Do you know where Calum is?" Luke asked suddenly, taking the senior boy aback by his aggressive tone.

"Oh..no..I haven't. I'm sorry."

"S'okay." Luke mumbled walking down towards the principals office.

The boy, Greg, followed Luke down the hall saying, "Oh, Luke he's not in there."

"Where is he?" Luke nearly shouted.

"Wow." Greg breathed, "I'm proud of you for speaking up. Have you ever thought of joining a club?"

"Greg, now is not the time to be a peer mentor. I need you to tell me where Feldmann is."

"He's at a meeting with a student's parents. I'm in charge while he's gone so if you need something I can help you."

"That's okay, you already did." Luke said racing out of the Mariliam building. Ashton smiled at Greg and thanked him before following Luke. "where are we going."

"Cal's dorm room." Luke shouted dodging a few guys that were walking down the road.

"Who was that?" Some guy asked.

"No idea but he nearly ran me over."

"His name is Luke." Ashton said to them as he passed them, "and he's cooler than the two of you combined."

Their mouths dropped open while Ashton ran past them. Of course they yelled some cruel language at Ashton, but the sight of them gasping was satisfying enough for Ashton.

He ran up to the porch of his dorm building then ran up the creaky stairs until he was standing in his hallway. Luke was already at the room by the time Ashton got there. Feldmann was pushing him out.

"We are in a meeting young man. Do not interrupt." Feldmann scolded as he led Luke out of the room by his bicep. Ashton stepped inside next to see Calum sitting on his bed surrounded by a bunch of moving men and two parents.

The lady was kissing Calum's teary face and the man was standing above him with his arms folded.

"It's not fair dad!" Calum shrieked out of nowhere startling his mother, "I've been good! I got a 4.0! Do you know how hard that is? Plus I'm on the soccer team like you wanted. I've done everything you said, why are you taking my stuff!"

"Because son, your behavior is atrocious."

"I went out to see a girl! I'm so sorry I'm a Horney sixteen year old boy that wants to see girls, but is that really a crime? I didn't rape her? I never even had sex with her! All I did was sneak out to see her?"

"You know the rules! You are NOT allowed to leave this building to see the girls building without being supervised! It's dangerous?"

"Oh really? How so? Because you think we're going to have sex right? Well I'm telling you we didn't!"

"No. There are other reasons why you should not break the rules. Hell Calum, the school has rules for a reason, and until you learn to respect them you can say goodbye to all of your things."

A sob escaped Calum's open lips, "I hate you!" He cried.

"Tough. Give me your credit card."

"Dad!" Calum cried, eyeing his dad warily.

"NOW!"

Calum didn't move causing the man to stride over to him dangerously. Calum shrinked back in his mother's arms. "Okay okay." Calum sniffled shoving a hand in his pocket and taking out his wallet.

"Here." He spat, throwing the card on the floor.

"This room is a disaster." His mother complained practically turning her nose up. "Honey if I knew you were living in filth for this long I would have taken away your credit card as well." She said sternly.

Feldmann had and hand on Ashton's shoulder the whole time as if telling him not to interrupt their personal conversation.

"Come on, get out". Feldmann whispered.

"It's my dorm too!" Ashton said pulling away from Feldmanns hold bringing attention to himself.

"Who is this?"

"My roommate." Calum sniffled, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, quickly.

"Well you should be ashamed of yourself living in such a dirty room?"

Ashton didn't even consider telling the lady that it was her son that created the mess. instead, he played along, "I'm sorry ma'am I'll clean it up."

"You better." She huffed crossing her arms, "now Feldmann what can we do about Calum's bad influences?"

"Well the crowd he has been around is unhealthy, however, I think it is good your son has friends. In my opinion it would be unwise to remove Calum from his friends."

"No." Calum's father stated flatly, "he doesn't need friends. He needs good grades and a scholarship. Is he still the star of the football team?"

"Yes Mr. Hood." The principal answered robotically.

"Good. Does he still have a chance at Harvard?"

"Of course he does Mr. Hood. Calum has made a mistake by sneaking out but that will not go on his permeant record. He's a good student, I'm sure I can make an exception for him."

"Thank you Feldy. Thank you so much." Mr. Hood walked over and clapped Feldmann on the back. "You always were a good friend."

"Same for you hoodie. I'll make sure your son stays in line."

"If he doesn't you have my permission to whip him into shape. I'm serious. Pull out old rusty and use him if that's what it takes."

"Dad!" Calum sobbed, "that's cruel!"

"It's what every other student at this school faces. I don't see why you should be any different!"

"I'm not a delinquent! I made a mistake! Half the people here are good people that made mistakes."

"Then you should be beaten like half the people here."

Calum gaped at his father, his eyes darting to his mother's hoping the woman would save him. She didn't say anything.

Luke somehow slipped by Feldmann and ran towards Calum, engulfing him in a hug.

"Lu." Calum breathed shakily into his hair, "I'm so sorry." He kissed Luke's spiky but fluffy blonde hair. "They're taking your bed." He cried harder desperately clutching Luke's arm for comfort.

"Shhh. It's okay cal. It's fine I don't need a bed. I can sleep on the couch." He whispered.

"Absolutely not. You will sleep in your own dorm." Feldmann scolded.

Calum squeezed Luke tighter. "You're not taking him from me. We're best friends and we always will be!"

Mr. Hood glared in the direction of John Feldmann. So the man walked over to Luke and pried him away from Calum. "Go back to your dorm before I paddle you." He scolded.

Calum let out a pathetic wail as Luke and Ashton were thrown out the door. "Calum!" Luke shouted pounding on the shut door. Feldmann opened in a split second and said coldly, "ashton you can come in after the class you ditched is finished. And then you can see me in detention. Same for you Mr. Hemmings, except you won't be coming back to this dorm ever again."

Luke glared. "Feldy. It's Calum. You love Calum. You can't be mean to him."

"It's his parents wishes. Now go to my office both of you."

"No." Luke said boldly, but Ashton yanked Luke down the hall.

"Stop. Saying no to the principal is only going to hurt you." Ashton muttered into his ear as they walked down the hall.

"I hate him." Luke whispered, "he use to be so nice. So cool. You should have seen him a year ago Ash, he never smacked anybody. He never even yelled."

"That's hard to believe." Ashton admitted.

___________________

When Ashton and Luke walked in the principals office they saw Michael sitting there with his head on the desk.

"Michael?" Ashton asked, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm sleepin' leave me alone." His voice sounded slurred.

Ashton and Luke took a seat in the back of the room and twiddled their thumbs for half an hour. Then, the unexpected happened, Calum came in the room with a backpack full of...spray paint.

"Calum...what are you doing?" Ashton asked hesitantly.

"Getting revenge." The raven haired lad said tossing Luke a bottle. "What do you say Luke? I think this place could use a glow up?"

Luke smirked, "alright! Let's do it."

Ashton watched in horror as his two friends started uncapping the spray paint cans and aiming for the walls.

"Guys stop!"

Luke drew a penguin as his first artistry and then he tossed in the nirvana symbol for good luck. They colored some LOL's and bunch of swear words, some giant X's and some clouds. Luke giggled when Calum sprayed some paint on his white dress shirt and school tie.

"Guys please. Feldmann's going to kill you." Ashton whined.

Shaking the bottle, Calum painted a downward arrow coloring it in bright red and he colored the word drop out below it.

Ashton walked forward and grabbed his red bandana out of his pocket of his maroon blazer and tried to desperately wipe away the already dry paint.

Michael laughed from his spot at the desk while he watched the boys draw heart shaped balloons, birds, skull bones, and guys with sunglasses.

"Do you like it, Michael?" Calum asked with a laugh, "it's our own little monument showpiece."

Colors mixed together forming the most beautiful masterpiece in the form of graffiti that Ashton has ever seen. What would be considered a work of art by most, will unfortunately not be considered art by Mr. Feldmann, who in return will likely see this stunt as the criminal offense it is, and thus press charges.

"Guys seriously, clean it up!"

"You can't clean up spray paint, Ash." Calum said rolling his eyes. Ashton strutted over to him, yanked him by the shoulders and shook him. "Why are you doing this? Huh? Do you want to get expelled?"

Calum shoved Ashton off of him with a puff of anger. He put on a dramatic show of fixing his blazer before laughing at Ashton. "What do I have to lose?"

And the most ridiculous thing is Calum actually believes that he has nothing to lose. It was as if his world fell apart at his feet the second his parents took away his precious Television set. Feeling his vision get blurry with rage, Ashton slammed Calum up against a wall, practically mimicking what Michael did to Luke the night before.

"What is wrong with you! So you lost a damn bed and television set, big deal! Life is going to throw more punches at you than that! If that's all you can take...If you're going to break down because of that - then how do you expect to survive when someone walks up to you in the middle of the street with a knife? Or how are you going to find food to eat if Life decides to make you homeless? What if Life takes your parents away? That's what you have to lose Calum! That and so much more!"

The dark haired boy looks startled,but his brown eyes lit a flame. He clenched his jaw and bit back in the highest pitch voice, "you don't know anything about me or my life so back the fuck off."

"I know more than you think..."

Calum scoffed, "as if."

"I know you think you have to be somebody else to fit in. You think you have to be the coolest kid at school, but you don't. Just you being you is cool. If your parents can't see that then they are blind."

"My parents don't want me to be me. They want me to be live up to the family name. They want me to be perfect!" Calum pushed Ashton away as more water gathered in his dark eyes.

"I'm not perfect, Ashton. I'm far from it."

"That's okay."

"It's not!" He suddenly shouted. "You don't know what it's like to feel worthless. I feel that way every day of my life! Every damn day."

"But Calum, not being perfect doesn't mean you worthless it just means your human."

"Try telling that to my parents. They are amazing human beings that I owe my life to. Honestly, they have given me the perfect life and what do I do with it? I fuck it up. I end up in a correctional boarding school because I made mistakes. All my parents ask is that I get perfect grades and a scholarship for football and what do I do? I fuck that up too!"

"You're being too hard on yourself -"

"I just want one day where I don't feel like a horrible son. I want one day where they don't criticize me. If they wanted the perfect child they shouldn't have had me."

Ashton's heart ached at the sight of his friends tears. He couldn't stand seeing Calum hurt which was weird because Calum and Ashton always disagree on things but in moments like this Ashton has never felt more relatable to anyone in his entire life. He resisted the urge to hug his friend in fear of scaring him away. Calum stood there with his fists clenched and nothing to hold on to. Ashton couldn't resist any longer, the sight was too heartbreakingly helpless. He wrapped his arms around Calum's back, squeezing him into a warm hug. For a moment Calum's body relaxed. Every muscles rested into Ashton's touch. He so badly wanted to be comforted by someone that he nearly cried again into Ashton's shoulder because he wasn't use to this kind of treatment. People aren't nice to Calum unless he pays a price -well except for Luke-he's always nice to Calum for free.

Suddenly the door burst open and the three boys yelped in surprise. Calum jumped out of Ashton's embrace to stare up at his principal.

At that moment, Feldmann scanned the room and made coincidental eye contact with Calum. Feeling his face begin to burn, Calum quickly looked down at the floor.

What the hell are you doing with bottles of spray paint?" He demanded indicating the bottles in their hands.

Ashton dropped his bandana, refusing to meet Feldmanns gaze. Calum, on the other hand, snapped his head up and glared at his principal. "What does it look like?" He hissed, "I'm styling your office. You should really thank me. This place was starting to look like a fucking morgue."

"Watch your mouth," Feldmann warned dryly, not even sparing a glance behind him. Instead his eyes caught focus of something else. Written in black spray paint in huge letters on the wall were the words:

"JOHN FELDMANN WOULD LOOK DAMN SEXY IN A MINI-SKIRT"

Up to this moment, Feldmann had seemed reasonably sane, but now he seemed to have snapped.

"I swear to God, Hood, I'm going to beat you until you bleed."

Everyone's faces paled. Luckily, before Feldmann could carry out his death threat, Michael took a can of spray paint and painted white over the message,successfully stopping any events.

"There." He said calmly "the words are gone and they never existed."

Feldmann groaned, slapping a hand over his face. "Fine. Clifford clean the walls spotless with that white spray paint. You won't be leaving here until you do. As for the three of you... Disciplinary measures will have to take place."

"Oh come on Feldy. It was a joke. A ruse. I'm sure we can all look back some day and laugh about this." Calum tried to smooth talk his way out of whatever punishment Feldmann planned on dishing. Either way, Ashton could tell they weren't getting out of this one. His principal was one hundred percent done.

"Get over the desk." Feldmann muttered, searching around in his pocket for something. He must have found what he was looking for because a second later he was unlocking a closet door.

"Which one? Me or Luke?" Calum asked bitterly. Ashton could taste the sour anger behind that statement. He glanced over at Luke for the first time tonight to notice that the blonde was staring off into space. It's like he completely checked out of the room and his head was floating off somewhere different.

"Luke." Ashton whispered. His soft voice gained Luke's attention. The blonde looked at him with a confused set of features before shaking in his skin. Guilt built up in Ashton's stomach, he shouldn't have brought Luke out of whatever trance he was in. He was obviously in one for a reason.

Feldmann pulled out a wooden paddle from the closet, one with holes in it and everything. Ashton squeezed his eyes shut; he was really hoping that object wasn't going to make an appearance tonight.

"Calum Hood come here." Feldmann said as he walked to the other end of the desk.

Ashton could tell the words, 'make me' were on the tip of Calum's lips when he decided to obediently walk forward. "I'm here." He smiled cheekily, even pulling out some jazz hands to rial Feldmann up even more.

"Bend over and put your hands on the desk."

"What no handcuffs? Why don't you show me what kind of a creep you really are. I bet this shit turns you on."

"If you do not bend over I will call your parents and speak with them about expulsion."

Calum glared, his face instantly flushing. "Yeah I'm sure you would. Perv." Despite his words, Calum bent over the desk.

Feldmann positions himself on the left side putting his hand on Calum's lower back to keep him in place.

"Why am I going to spank you?" Feldmann offered, trying the boy to see if he could go easy on him.

"Because you're a sadist, jerkoff," Calum hissed sharply, kicking up a leg back just low enough to scrap Feldmanns shin.

"I see we're going to have a long session tonight," Feldmann murmured and began to apply regular swats all around the young bottom. Calum shuddered, biting off insults left and right. The thick wood slammed against his rear. Thank God Calum had his school trousers on that's all Ashton could say. The hits seemed to be taking a tool on Calum, his swearing died down.

CRACK

"Bastard!"

CRACK

"Son of a bitch"

CRACK

"Stop making a fool of yourself."

CRACK

"You hit like my grandma."

CRACK

Silence.

Ashton saw Calum clamp down on his fist instead of speaking out.

A few more cracks and Calum cried out from around his fist. His poor friend was in such an embarrassing position, it must have killed him to make a sound in front of everyone.

Ashton looked over at Michael. The red-head was painting the walls as he was told, minding his own business. He jumped every few times he heard the paddle fall, but then again so did Ashton.

Luke was busy reading. He had dug out a book from his backpack and busied himself in that. Ashton was the only one truly watching which made him feel more guilty than before.

He made eye-contact with the boy right after Feldmann delivered the final swat.

"Go help Mr. Clifford clean up."

Calum stood up wordlessly, wiping his burry eyes quickly before stomping over to the bag of spray paint. He picked up a white can coloring over the designed he and Luke drew.

"Mr. Hemmings. Come here."

Ashton's heart leaped in his throat. It was bad enough he had to watch Calum get hurt, but Luke? How the hell can anyone hurt Luke. The younger boy shuffled over to his principal with his hands dug in his pockets.

Feldmann sighed, "you really need to stop hanging around the wrong crowd Luke. I don't like doing this to you. You're a good student." Feldmann sounded like he was pleading for Luke to stop finding trouble so he doesn't have to beat him which is hilarious because feldmann is the one in charge. He doesn't have to beat Luke if he doesn't want to. "But spray painting my office is unacceptable and if you're going to go along with the crowd you will be treated exactly the same. I'm not giving you any special treatment."

Why would he? What's so different about Luke from Calum? Ashton mentally slapped himself for thinking that, considering Luke and Calum were basically polar opposites.

He watched as Luke nodded, then bent himself over the desk. He gripped the edge with white knuckles but remained still.

Calum growled from his spot by the wall, a new found sense of anger was shining through. He nearly broke the spray paint can in half when Feldmann brought down the paddle.

"Some correctional school this is!" He shouted. "What are you doing Feldmann, you know he doesn't deserve this!" Calum nearly wailed his own eyes brimming with tears as if he were being whipped all over again.

Luke's entire body was shaking as he lay over the desk, and his face was pulled in a tight scrunched up grimace, but no tears were falling from his shut eyes. In fact, Luke was his quiet usual self. If anything he was very stoic during his chastisement.

"Alright. It's done now, just relax." Mr. Feldmann said to the shivering boy beneath him. "Why don't you go see nurse rose." Prompted Feldmann after a few more minutes of Luke's shaking. The spiky haired boy waddled out of the room. He gave Ashton a half smile, as if, in some way saying he was going to be okay.

It was Ashton's turn now. He walked over to Feldmann without being asked.

Calum started to speak, trying to defend Ashton, considering the boy didn't participate in the events. Of course, Principal Feldmann didn't believe him. It's alright, Ashton was ready to get his first beating over with anyway. He had no doubt in his mind that this was going to hurt. It did, but only for a few minutes. Feldmann didn't lecture him too much. He let the paddle do the talking. After the fifth smack with the wicked wooden object from hell, Ashton let out a screech. He continued to vocalize his displeasure -owing until he couldn't hold back his tears. It was way embarrassing to be brought to tears, especially in front of two people he see's all the time, but Ashton didn't care. It felt good to cry, to get it all out. He almost needed to cry and the punishment was simply an excuse. Feldmann helped Ashton up and apologized for going so hard on him. In all honesty, it wasn't bad at all.

He went over to the wall and covered up the art with white spray paint. Calum gave Ashton a lopsided hug in hopes to comfort his friend. It worked, because Ashton felt closer to Calum than ever, not because of the hug, but because of what Calum said about feeling worthless. It's a shame they can relate on that but at least it's something.

Michael made eye-contact with Ashton, but he didn't say anything he just stared. It finally dawned on the curly haired boy that it was Michael who saved Calum from feeling Feldmann's wrath. Sure, Calum still got beat, but at least he didn't bleed. Ashton gave Michael a nod, to say thank you. He hoped the tall gothic kid understood what he was trying to say. Michael nodded back before breaking eye contact. Ashton smiled to himself. He knew he could trust Michael.

He knew it.

____________________

Calum and Ashton sat on the rooftop, the one place where Calum still had all of his expensive luxury items, and stared out into the starry night. It was past midnight, and Ashton knew that the school would have several nightly inspections on the boys to make sure they are all in their dorms. There is no way Luke will be able to sleep in Calum's room anymore. In fact, Professor Lash probably already checked on him multiple times. It would be a miracle if Mr. Day didn't check on Ashton and Calum as well. Calum knew this, but he didn't care. He wanted to see Luke tonight before the kid went to bed. He was texting Luke all night begging the boy to leave his dorm room and sleep on the roof.

So far, Luke hasn't shown up and it was concerning Calum. Ashton took a sip of his milky white vanilla shake, then tossed on his sunglasses to shield his eyes from the bright moonlight that was blinding his face. The building opposite of them was close enough that Ashton could see candles in almost every dorm room window. He smiled to himself. His body finally relaxed in the lawn chair even though he found the position slightly painful. It was nice to be off of his feet. He was cleaning spray paint off the wall for a good two hours before Mr. Feldmann excused them all to their dorms.

Calum, took a sip of his milkshake, then put his phone back in his pocket. "He said he doesn't want to leave his room. I knew it! He's fucking traumatized of coming to my room." For the millionth time that night Calum began to cry.

"It's okay, bro. I'm sure we'll see Luke all the time up here." Ashton was quick to soothe.

"You don't get it. He needs to sleep with us." Calum growled, tugging at his hair, "but he won't come up here because Lash is guarding his door like a hawk."

"Fine. Then he can sleep up here on the roof with us tomorrow. Or we can sneak him out."

Calum smiled. "Good for you Ashton, already thinking of ways to break the rules."

Ashton rolled his eyes playfully, "obviously you and Luke are connected at the hip. I can't imagine splitting you up."

Calum wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Thanks" he whispered, then with a laugh he added, "my eyes hurt so bad. I just want to sleep."

Draping a blanket that was folded up in the corner across his lap, Ashton smoothed the cotton over Calum as well. "That's a good idea."

"Thanks mate...for everything. Oh, and I'm sorry I got you in trouble. I didn't mean to get you involved." Calum's eyes closed as he hummed around his pink milkshake straw.

"It's alright. Yeah, it sucked getting hit for something I didn't do, but at least I got it over with you know?" Ashton tried to smile but it came across as a grimace.

"Yeah, do you feel better now?"

Ashton looked down at his milkshake that was filled with medicine, an idea Calum and Luke came up with after their first punishment together. "You mean because of the medicine or because I got my punishment over with?"

"both." Calum said after thinking it over.

"Yeah I feel better. How about you? You were the one having an emotional breakdown earlier."

"Oh that" Calum laughed, "yeah that was embarrassing. Forget everything I said."

Ashton frowned. He didn't want to forget everything Calum said. It was the reason he felt connected to Calum. For once in his life someone actually understood what it felt like to not be good enough.

The soft chilly breeze whipped Ashton's curly hair up into his face. Neither of the boys spoke, instead they watched the dancing lights reflect off of the pond water down below. It's amazing what the eyes can see especially from a different point of view. Ashton passed that pond on a daily basis going to classes, but it wasn't until tonight that he realized just how remarkable the water was. It added a certain bliss to the otherwise gloomy school atmosphere.

Ashton heard Calum shifting on his chair, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. No doubt the cold air, hard lawn chair, and sore butt were getting in the way of his sleep. Ashton sighed, shifting around for a comfy position himself and groaning loudly when he couldn't find one. "Should we go in?"

The question came suddenly, catching Calum off guard. Still, the boy knew his answer immediately. "Absolutely not."

"But Calum, it's freezing up here and Luke's not coming."

"He will. Just give him time."

"You said it yourself he's scared. There's no way he's going to risk another ass beating."

Calum sat up in his chair to stare at Ashton in the eye. The moonlight lit up his face in the most incredible way. If only Ashton had a camera to capture the lighting.

His friend glared harshly, "Look. You can go back to our dorm whenever you want but I'm not leaving here in case Luke shows up. I'm not letting him sleep alone tonight."

Clenching his jaw, Ashton glared right back at Calum. His sweet words were nearly mocking the fact that Ashton was clueless as to why Luke can't sleep alone. "He got punished. He wasn't murdered, he wasn't tortured so why the fuck do you keep acting like Luke is some precious China doll that can break at any given moment!" Ashton snapped.

A flash of hurt crossed Calum's illuminated features. "Because..." He drifted off.

At this rate Ashton was never going to feel like he belonged in this group of friends, not if they keep sharing secrets behind his back.

"Whatever." Ashton scoffed. It was a long day and he didn't want to press anymore on the sensitive subject.

Calum, however, wasn't letting it go. "It's complicated." He lamely tried to explain.

"I get it. You were friends with him first."

"This has nothing to do with being friends with him first." Slapping a hand over his face, Calum dragged the skin downward while letting out a frustrated noise. "I can't explain it because I don't understand it that well. All I know is Luke gets scared at night. Like...really scared. Like to the point where he is shaking and crying and shit like that. He's told me before he can't sleep unless I'm with him. He says he has terrifying nightmares. Now, I've tried to ask him what they were about, but he won't tell me."

Yawning, Ashton rubbed his eyes with his fists. "I believe that." He murmured, but it still doesn't explain everything he thought bitterly to himself. Nevertheless, Ashton was thankful Calum actually tried to explain something to him.

"You know," ashton began hesitantly, "I feel the same way you do about my parents."

"What do you mean?"!

"You know... I feel like I'm never good enough for them. No matter what I do, they always hate me."

"I'm sure they don't hate you."

Ashton laughed cynically, "you sound like everyone else."

Calum paused, thinking over what Ashton said. "I'm sorry." He whispered, "if you say they hate you, then I believe you...because no one ever believes me when I tell them my about my family. They think I have it great. Why wouldn't I? I'm rich. I have everything I could ever wanted and more. To complain about my life makes me a spoiled brat." Calum spat the words out as if he were chewing on poison. "Am I spoiled?"

Naturally, Ashton didn't respond. He felt like Calum needed to get this all out.

"I don't think I am, but then sometimes I do. Do You know what I mean?"

Ashton shook his head no.

"Course not. No one does." Calum fumbled with the hem of his blanket before choosing his next words. "My dad was the best pro football player in the world, that's why he's so damn rich. He made his way to the pros through this school. It's here where he met Feldmann and my mom. This school is everything to him. Of course, he was sent here because he was a violent, unruly teen. When he got out, and people realized what this place can do, a bunch of parents started sending their kids here. Feldmann grew up and became the principal. Before he was just as fucked up as the rest of us, now he thinks he owns us." Gripping the lawn chair tightly, Calum scowled, "everything was going great for my father until he had an accident on the field. He tore his three major ligaments in his knee and shattered the bone. It took years for him to recover from his injury and by the time he did the team didn't want him anymore. It ended his career and ever since, my father has been trying to make me in to something he never was."

Ashton's eyes sparkled in the moon, his heart aching for his friend. Calum, laid back on the chair and stared at the sky. "I hate playing football. I never used to but ever since he forced me to sign up for football teams in every school, I started hating it. If I didn't win a game, I didn't get fed. Food was a privilege according to my father. If I wanted to eat, if I wanted to toy all I had to do was win."

"I'd reckon that made you rather competitive." Ashton chuckled.

Calum snorted, "Yeah it did. See I was only rich when I was a good boy and did everything my parents wanted. I never did anything bad to get into this school. My dad fucking sent me here because I quit the football team at my high school. He took me out of their so fast and threw me in here I barely had time to process it. Hey, this is where he made his great path to success. It only makes sense that I should be here. I'm a hood and everyone at this school knows it. They think I'm some rich boy who asks daddy for everything so I play up to their expectations. I might as well. They treat me like that no matter what."

"Calum...I'm so sorry. I know you don't want to hear that, but I don't know what else to say. Honestly, I'm like the worst because I judged you." Ashton admitted sadly, "I thought you were spoiled, no offense. But now I understand. I should have know that you weren't."

Calum scoffed, "even if I did have a rich dad that gives me everything is that really my fault? I didn't ask for my parents! No one ever does."

Ashton nodded, tears starting to brim in his eyes but he pushed them away. "I'm sorry. You're right. No one asks for their family."

Sensing the higher than normal voice, Calum turned towards Ashton with worry in his expression. "Hey, are you alright?"

Ashton nodded quickly, probably too quickly, but he didn't care. "Yeah I'm fine."

Calum rolled his eyes, "I told you, I know that lie. I've used it myself a million times. What wrong?"

"Me." Ashton snapped bitterly, "I'm a lonely nobody who is never going to be somebody that people accept. My own parents hate me and you know what? It's all my fault."

"No. No, Ashton don't say that. It's never your fault -"

"Stop Calum. You don't know - it's okay. You don't have to know. In fact the less you know the better."

"Now you sound like Luke."

"Maybe I'm starting to understand where he's coming from."

"Ashton if your parents don't love you, it's their fault, not yours."

"that's not true. I had one job and i screwed it up. That's what I do. I let down the people I love." He said in a shaken whisper.

_I let them down_


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somebody is always hiding something.

"And you, my father, there on the sad height,/ Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray./ Do not go gentle into that good night./ Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Mr. Frey slammed the poetry book shut as well as his eyes. "Do you feel the pain in those words? Do you feel the anger?" He opened his eyes, looking at his students directly. "This poem is perhaps the most famous villanelle poem to ever exist. Yet the poem's true importance lies not in its structure, but in its raw power of the emotions underlying it. Dylan Thomas used the poem to address his dying father's loss of health and he begs him to cling to life. The speakers tone is urgent, angry, and scared. He wants his father to fight death. Do not go gentle into that goodnight."

Ashton scribbled down most of the words Mr. Frey was saying. For one thing, it could be on the test he is having next week, but the other reason is the poem actually fascinated Ashton. Using strength even when things look hopeless is something Ashton wants to do. He finds inspiration in that.

"Your most important assignment is the one I'm going to give you today. It will be due three weeks from now." Mr. Frey wrote the date on the black board before continuing, "I want you to write a poem where the speaker is using emotions to describe a painful situation. It is best if you use your own experiences, however, you may make something up if you would like. Nevertheless your speech must make the audience feel his or her hurt. You can do it. I believe in all of you."

Just then, the bell rang, and all of the students jumped up to rush out the door. Ashton lingered behind, packing up his backpack, then walking out the door behind the crowd. For the first time in a while, Ashton felt alone. Luke wasn't in class, in fact, he was nowhere to be seen for the last two days. Mrs. Lash pounded on his room door and scolded him for not getting up. Her scare tactics failed, though, for Luke still wasn't in class.

She gave Ashton a sympathetic smile when he walked in her class all alone. "I can find you a new tutor since Mr. Hemmings refuses to cooperate." She said to him once class was over.

"That's alright." Ashton said, gathering up his books, "I want to learn from Luke. I'm sure he'll come out of his room eventually. He can't skip class for too long. He's a straight A student."

"I know. That's what worries me. Why he would even skip in the first place is beyond me."

"He’s tired of us." Ashton laughed, but it was forced. She could tell.

Later, Ashton ran into Michael in the cafeteria, literally. The boy's tray splattered all over the floor embarrassingly enough.

"Wow nice going!" Michael shouted, walking over to his small isolated corner and shrinking into the wall. Ashton followed him nervously, ignoring the other boys staring eyes.

"Hey, can I sit with you?" Ashton squeaked. He silently cursed himself for sounding so weak. Looking up, Michael held a constant scowl on his face, but he nodded nonetheless. Ashton took advantage of the opportunity and sat down.

"So..." He trailed off feeling extremely awkward around the gothic weird kid, "how have you been?"

"Fine." Michael gritted through clenched teeth.

"Good. That's good."

More awkward silence filled the tiny space of the back table. Ashton shifted uncomfortably. "Um..thanks for helping us, you know, that one day in the pricipals office when Calum went nuts and started spray painting everything."

"It wasn't for you. I only helped because I wanted to stick it to feldmann."

Ashton bit his lip, "okay. Cool. Well thanks anyway."

"Whatever."

This was impossible, Ashton thought bitterly as he watched Michael take a bite out of his cheeseburger.

"So, are you going to help us with the music project tonight?"

"If I do will you leave me alone?" Michael asked, looking at Ashton square in the face.

"Absolutely."

"Then fine. I have detention with Feldmann at three. But I'll be in your dorm room at eight, Sound good?"

"Yeah. Sounds great."

Michael shook his head muttering something about Ashton being incredibly stupid under his breath. He took that as his cue to leave and walked back to his table with Calum. His friend was miserable, to say the least. His hair was unwashed, his eyes had bags under them and he looked ready to cry at any given moment.

"Hey. How have you been?" Ashton greeted.

"How have I been? Let's see, I haven't seen Luke in over three days, my dad took away all of my things, I can't even afford to buy fucking lunch, and oh yeah, we have stupid fucking health screenings today which means I'm probably getting a shot in my already sore ass! So add all of that up and if that sounds great to you then I'm great! In fact I'm better than great! I'm fan-fucking-tastic!"

Ashton nodded, "so I'm guessing I should stop asking questions now."

"That would be great." Calum grimaced.

"I'm sorry Cal. I would offer you some of my food, but I dropped it on the floor."

"I Guess we're both gonna starve today."

"I'll give you some dinner." Ashton suggested.

Making a loud sound of distress, Calum threw his head down on the small round table. "He won't even let me in his room. It's like he's mad at me." Calum said, voice wobbly.

Ashton sighed, the conversation always drifted back to Luke. "I'm sure he isn't mad at you. He's probably just upset with Feldmann."

"It's my fault he got paddled. He should hate me."

"No, Calum, it's not your fault. Luke didn't have to participate in the spray painting. It's not like you held a gun to his head."

Calum burried his head in his arms. "I just want to see him. I want to make sure he's okay. Yesterday was Wednesday night, you know?"

Ashton didn't know. What was so bad about Wednesday nights? He must have asked that out loud because Calum responded with a gruff, "I can't say."

Ashton frowned and stopped talking. Nothing he said was going to make Calum feel any better anyway. Ashton gently patted Calum's back trying to heal his friends broken heart.

Gym class arrived quickly and all of the boys went to nurse Rose's office for their health screenings.

A class of freshman boys were walking out of the room with tears streaming down their faces. They were chatting about the exams.

"Poor freshmen." Calum mumbled to one of his classmates standing beside him. The boy with dark skin nodded in agreement as a few fifteen year olds scampered past them, eager to get to their next class.

"What do you think will happen to Luke?" The boy whispered to Calum.

Shrugging Calum said, "I figured he would be in this group of kids. He is only fifteen."

"Really?" The kid, Cameron, asked with wide eyes, "how is he in our class then?"

"Little Einstein skipped a year." Calum laughed. He took a handful of papers, grabbed one out of the stack, then passed them back to Cameron.

"Ugh, I hate filling out these forms."

"Me too." Calum muttered. Ashton looked down at the forms in his hand which read Department of Health questions for students. The following was full of questions such as, has the student ever had surgery, get headaches when exercising, use an inhaler or take asthma medication.

Ashton glared at the sheet, some of the questions embarrassed him. He didn't want to fill out a sheet on his personal health.

"You better hurry up before Mrs. Rose calls you back." Calum said to Ashton who was just sitting there, staring at the wall.

"I don't know half of this." Ashton answered honestly. It's true, his parents never cared enough to take him or his siblings to the doctors. Growing up, Ashton always assumed he was fine unless he was injured. When he got injured he would stay in bed a rest for a while until he could withstand the pain.

The doctor entered in green scrubs, her black hair tied low in a pony tail. Ashton sat up a little higher to get a better look. She was Indian looking with large brown eyes, neatly lined in black. She had the lithe movement of an athlete and the easy smile of one visiting a dear friend. She spoke with an american accent and with her hands. So this was his nurse. Younger than he had expected but somehow he didn't mind anymore. He felt more relaxed than before.

"I'm doctor Tina, and this is nurse rose."

An elderly lady walked out of the room with a heart shaped stethoscope around her neck. Ashton chuckles slightly. She was adorable and he couldn't be happier to have such friendly looking women do this health screening on him.

"Mr. Acker, you're up." She said with a sweet smile. His classmate, Danny Acker, also known as dirtbag Danny stood up and made his way to the back room.

"Shit man, this could take forever." Ashton groaned, realizing their were a lot of people in his gym class.

"Don't worry, they do this relatively fast." Calum promised. He was right, as usual, because soon his nurse called he name Hemmings.

Ashton and Calum's heads shot up like a turtle jumping out of its shell. Luke walked (was dragged) into the room by Mr. Feldmann. His eyes were dark with lack of sleep, breakouts outlined his face. His red rimmed eyes and frown etched deep in his skin shook Ashton to the core. Something was terribly wrong.

Calum must have thought the same thing because he was on his feet in seconds, running over to his zombie looking friend. He walked into the back with Luke and Mr. Feldmann.

"Did you see that?" Tucker asked, his whisper voice full of excitement and fear, "the kid looked petrified."

"Yeah what do you think happened?" Max asked, sounding more nervous than excited.

"I don't know, but whatever happened it must have been really bad."

That was enough for Ashton, he stomped into the back room to check on his friends.

"Dude, you can't do that." Tucker shouted after him, but Ashton didn't listen.

He heard cries coming from one of the closed curtain rooms and he opened it to find a group of people standing around a table that Luke was hiding under.

He was shaking, his watery eyes enlarged when he saw the nurse reach out for him. His goosebumps were visible to Ashton who was a few feet away from the pair.

"What's going on?" Ashton asked out loud. Every pair of eyes landed on him.

"You shouldn't be back here." The doctor said flatly.

"It's okay, he's a friend of Luke's." Calum promised. Then he turned to Ashton and said, "he's afraid, that's all."

"I've never seen a child react this violently to the idea of getting a check up." The doctor muttered.

Nurse rose practically picked Luke up, and held him closely. "Lukey here is a little shy. He doesn't like others looking at him when he gets undressed. But he'll let me check him out, won't you Lukey?"

The blonde boy nodded, his hands going around nurse rose's neck.

"Fine. Then get on with it. The rest of us will leave." Doctor Tina said, clearly annoyed. "I'll give Hood and Irwin their check ups then."

She took Ashton first, telling him to stand up against a wall so he could have his height measured.

"Wow, 5'9", you're a tall one. Plus, you might grow a few more inches." The doctor said with a wink.

Ashton smiled softly, he figured he was going to grow up to be incredibly tall considering his father was a giant. There's not much he remembers about his biological father since the man walked out on Ashton at the young age of two, but if he remembers anything at all, it would be the man's height and how it use to terrify Ashton.

"Let's check your weight. Please step on the scale." Doctor Tina said, scribbling some notes down.

"Make sure you are eating enough." She reminded him after writing his weight down.

"Okay, I have a few questions for you and then we can start the examination. Why don't you wait behind curtain number four while I check on Mr. Hood's height and weight."

Ashton nodded, mumbling something along the lines of "sure thing." Along the way, he couldn't help but peak into the room where nurse rose was with Luke.

The boy was sniffling now, he was shirtless and had a stethoscope on his chest. He shaking never ceased which concerned Ashton. It conserned him even more when he saw bruises on Luke's arms.

"Alright. Lay down on your back." Nurse rose said quietly. Luke let out a high pitched wail. Ashton winced as his poor friend scooted back against the wall pulling his knees to his chest. Finally it looks like someone hates doctors more than Ashton does.

When Ashton heard Doctor Tina say she was going to check Calum's weight, he raced off into curtain four.

It was a simple school nurse's room with a bed, and some colorful wall paper.

Ashton sat on the paper sheet bed and waited.

"Hello Ashton." Doctor Tina said, "so, you're sixteen right?"

"Yeah."

"Are you allergic to any medication?"

"I don't know." He winced, knowing that didn't sound good.

"Have you been having any problems lately?" She asked jumping to the next question.

"No."

"Are you sexually active?"

Ashton blushed a deep red, "no." He muttered quietly.

"Alright. I'm going to check your blood pressure. Take off your blazer for me and roll up your dress shirt."

Ashton did as he was told and the doctor placed some velcro contraption on Ashton's arm. It started to get tighter and tighter until Ashton started to feel pain, but then just as suddenly, it deflated.

"Good blood pressure. Now let's check that heart beat. Can you take your shirt off for me?"

Ashton nodded then fumbled with the buttons of his shirt before slipping it off. She pressed he cold stethoscope to his chest asking him to breathe deeply.

"You have a real drum beat in there." She laughed, "try to relax, hon."

"Okay. I'm checking your ears now." She put a painful object in his ear, then to the other.

"They look good."

He had to open his mouth and have her check his throat. Ashton was told to lay down. She pressed his stomach in multiple places watching his face for any signs of pain.

"Alright, I'm going to have to take your pants and boxers off for a split second."

Ashton's eyes fluttered closed in absolute mortification. He couldn't imagine how red his face is, but he can feel it burning. She was professional about it, though, taking his clothes off for a second. Poking around then writing something down, she finally pulled his clothes up.

"Alright. Now we have one more unpleasant task to get to and then you may go."

"Let me guess. I need a shot?"

"Yes indeed. Smart boy."

"I just figured with my luck." Ashton mumbled.

She chuckles slightly, then asked him to sit up as she went to get an injection.

Nurse rose walked back in instead of doctor Tina. "Hello honey. Are you ready for your tetanus shot?"

"Okay." Ashton whispered nervously. Honestly, his heart felt like it was going to explode from beating a million times faster.

"I know you're nervous, but I'll be gentle. Get ready."

Ashton felt himself scoot back just like Luke did. In fact, he saw himself shaking just as badly as he was. If this is how Luke feels everyday, Ashton has a new, deeper feeling of pity for his small friend.

"1, 2, 3." She counted down the moments before the cold needle pierced his skin making a small whimper escape his lips. Wow, he felt like such a whimp. The needle was taken out and a bandaid was put right over.

"Good job, sweetheart. You can go back to the waiting room."

Ashton nodded, then walked out to the room where the rest of his classmates were however Luke and Calum weren't there. Ashton noticed their absence instantly. Max and Tucker were talking to each other quietly, laughing about something.

"Hey." Ashton whispered sitting down next to them.

"Ash! Look at this." Max whisper shouted as he waved a phone in front of Ashton's face. His eyes sparkled, and his huge grin felt warm. "No seriously, read this, its hilarious."

Ashton glanced down at the phone the article caption read: "Walmart news - Police received a report of a new-born infant found in a trash can. Upon investigation, officers discovered it was only a burrito."

He lifted his eyes to find Max and Tucker laughing so hard they were holding their stomachs. "Isn't that great! I was there, bro, I saw the police and everything. Dude, I thought it was going to be some big drug scandal or something so I wait until today, look up the news article and - holy hell - it was a burrito!" Max laughed.

He couldn't help but snort at his friends. Their laughter was contagious. "That's funny. It really is. I didn't even know you had a part time job at Walmart."

"Oh yeah." Max waved at the air, "it's no big deal."

"He basically begged Feldmann to let him out of this 'ere school so he could make some money. Feldmann watched him like a hawk for a week to make sure he was responsible enough or whatever an then he jus' let him go."

"I had to prove that I wasn't gonna run away." Max muttered, stuffing his fists in his pockets, a nervous habit he did every so often.

"Speaking of running away, where did Calum and Luke run off to?"

"Oh, they went back to their dorms." Max answered, "Feldmann personally escorted them out. It was weird, he like, waited for Luke to be done with his check up and then he walked him out."

"Yeah, Calum was right behind them the whole time." Tucker added, shaking his head, "typical for Hood. He loves to bother Feldmann. It's a family tradition."

Ashton nodded, remembering how Calum mentioned that Feldmann was an old friend of his parents.

"Do you think I can go back to my dorm?" Ashton asked. He glanced around the nurses office to find there was no authority figure around.

"Sure mate, if you want to bloody skip classes again." Dirtbag Danny said from across the room. His eyes were glued to the back of Ashton's head.

"I don't care about classes. My friends might be in trouble." Ashton replied.

"I'm sure Hemmings is fine. But he was pretty shaken up." Danny sighed, "alright, go. I'll cover for your ass in art class."

"Thank you, Dirtbag, you won't be sorry."

"I better not be." He mumbled under his breath, "now go. Your friends need you."

On his way out, Ashton smiled -a silent thank you - then left Mariliam. Once he reached his building, rain began pouring down from the dark shadowy skies. He quickly dodged inside the shelter of the building. Upstairs, in his dorm room, he found Calum and Luke huddled under a big fluffy blanket on the sofa watching TV. An old Harry Potter movie was playing as the two boys munched on some potato chips.

"Hey look Luke, Ashton's here." Calum said softly, nearly bouncing the shaking boy on his lap. Luke looked small and hurt the way he was curled up on the couch.

"What's wrong with him?" Ashton asked as he sat next to his friends. He winced at his words, realizing how harsh it sounded. "I mean, why is he so upset." He corrected.

"He's afriad to take his clothes off. It's not a big deal, he just feels small and vulnerable and the check up freaked him out. But he's fine." Calum replied, rubbing Luke's back soothingly throughout the conversation.

"Aw Luke, I'm so sorry. I know that sucked. I didn't like it either if it makes you feel any better."

Luke sniffled a smile. Though he was a sad, shaking mess, more than usual, Luke never let a single tear fall from his glassy eyes. He wasn't crying at all, more like, stuck in an eternal frown, but never crying.

Ashton turned towards the movie playing on the screen and smiled. He loved Harry Potter as a kid, heck, he still does. They’ve watched almost three quarters of the movie now and it feels like Ashton's permanently attached to Calum’s back. He seemed to be enjoying the movie, but his attention was mainly focused on Luke who looks up at Ashton with watery eyes only slightly visible when illuminated by the soft glow of the television.

"Do you want to watch a Harry Potter marathon with us?" He asked softly, reaching forward to offer Ashton a bowl of popcorn.

"Sure." Ashton smiled, accepting the bowl.

Luke smiled too, his body resting back against Calum's. By the time Harry is leaving Hogwarts, Luke is fast asleep in Calum's arms. The soft pellets of rain soothed him to sleep.

"Should we watch another movie? I mean, he's asleep." Ashton mumbled to Calum when the tan boy was rummaging through the livingroom cabinets.

"Yeah, why not. It will give us something to do. Plus if he wakes up, he'll have something to distract him."

"Distract him from what?"

"Memories."

"Memories of what?"

Calum shot Ashton a warning glance. "Memories of stuff. Can you pass me the popcorn."

"Sure thing." Ashton sighed passing the half-eaten bowl of popcorn towards Calum. Sometime during the second movie, Luke woke up and cuddled into Ashton's chest. It felt good to have someone as clingy as Luke hold on to him like a life line, griping his chest as if he needed Ashton to survive. No one has ever needed Ashton before. Curling his arms around Luke’s frame, Ashton rests his hand on top of Calum's hip. As the heavy rain pours outside, they are all connected in the safe cocoon of blankets where the rain can't touch them.

Finally, after the fourth movie, it was nearly 8pm and Ashton told the boys that Michael was coming to work on their project. Luke decided to stand up and walk with his friends to the music room, but he kept his blanket firmly wrapped around his waist.

They waited in the music room for an hour before giving up on Michael. They performed songs by themselves, enjoying the process of making music together. Whacking those drums, Ashton watched as Luke howled into the microphone making Chad Kroger look bad. They sang Nickelback's song, "How You Remind Me" then uploaded it to the music teachers website. Hopefully Mr. Day will accept their homework assignment even though it was a cover of a rock song.

Hopefully they will get a passing grade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What’s going on with Luke? And why didn’t Michael show up? 
> 
> Hehe :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get in the biggest fights with the people you care about the most because those are the relationships worth fighting for.

"Okay, so the two things you need to remember when dealing with quadratic equations is to put the problem in standard form and to factor."

Luke took a swig of Pepsi, then placed his bottle down on the school's library table. Licking his lips, he leaned against Ashton's strong shoulder to watch him scribble down the practice problem from the book. "Now I'll show you what I mean."

Luke took a pencil and wrote down standard form. Below it he wrote a bunch of letters and numbers: ax^2 + bx + c = 0.

He looked at Ashton's written out problem and began to work his genius superpower. The problem said:

X^2 + 40 = -14x

"So we have to get everything over the equal sign then factor. So, add 14x to the other side and you will have x^2 +14x + 40 =0. Now factor the equation like we talked about last chapter and bam!"

Luke smiled at his accomplishments. "(X+4)(x+10)=0. But we're not done yet."

Ashton sat back and groaned, "why can't we be done!" He whined like a toddler wanting to eat a cookie out of the cookie jar.

Luke chuckled softly, "you just need to solve the two equations. (X+4)=0 subtract four and you have x=-4. Now do the same thing for 10."

"X= -10." Ashton said sitting up straight in his seat. Excited and happy, Ashton was smiling widely. He just solved a quadratic equation. Luke was some type of genius!

"Thanks Lukey. You really are a good tutor."

The shy blonde felt a blush creep across his face. "Thanks." He whispered.

"Seriously, You are really smart." Ashton complimented making the boy turn red as a tomato.

"I have a thing for math." Luke mumbled. That's all it was really, after all his mum was a math teacher. He felt compelled to tell Ashton this. He shared that information so fast, Luke barely had time to think if it was a good idea of not. He was always thinking things through, calculating every moment with precision But this, this was spur of the moment for Luke, no wonder it backfired in his face.

"Really? You're mum is a math teacher? That's so cool. My mum never had a job." Ashton admits quietly. "But what about your mum? I mean, like, you never talk about her. Is she smart too? A genius just like you?"

Ashton felt the mood turn icy the second he stopped talking, however, he figured it turned that way a while ago.

"Luke? Did I say something?" Ashton asked when he saw Luke staring off into space.

"You who, earth to Luke." Waving a hand in front of his friends face, Ashton snapped his fingers to get his attention. Luke's eyes darted to Ashton's in a dark way. It scared Ashton so much, that he nearly tripped over his own two feet when he stepped backwards to avoid the glare.

But Luke's eyes softened and he laughed nervously, "there's nothing to say. We should get to Lunch, I think Calum is waiting for us."

Ashton nodded, he was still tense from seeing Luke so shaken up. What was it with this kid? What was he hiding. Ashton could tell by his eyes that Luke was not ready to tell anyone his secret any time soon.

"Hey Luke?" He mumbled on their walk to the cafeteria.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks again for helping me, I really appreciate it."

Luke smiled, "no problem Ash. Thanks for hanging out with me and being a great friend."

The boys hugged one another lopsidedly as the walked to the Mariliam. It was in the cafeteria that the boys met up with Calum.

"Hey guys." Calum mumbled, his usual bright brown eyes were dull.

"Oh no, what now?" Ashton asked sitting beside his depressed friend.

"Really bad news."

"Shit."

Calum pounded his fist down on the round table making a few passerby's stare at him.

"It's all his fault! I hate him!"

"Who?" Luke asked nervously, "what are you talking about?"

"We failed our music homework. Mr. Day emailed me ten minutes ago saying that we need to have all our members in the group in order to pass. He gave us a zero." Calum all but cried.

Ashton's jaw clenched tight. Michael promised him he would be there yesterday and he completely bailed on him. Standing up from his spot at the table, Ashton cranked his neck to the sad little corner of the room where Michael was sitting alone with his head down on the table.

"Michael!" He shouted, raising his voice even louder when the other boy didn't respond, "Hey Michael!"

Michael sighed, looking back over his shoulder at the messy-haired teen standing with his hands on his hips. "What do you want?" Michael groaned.

"Where were you last night? Huh? Because you sure as hell weren't in the music room with us that's for sure."

"Fuck off." Michael hissed.

Ashton was taken aback by the harshness of Michael's words. "Wow. You have the nerve to say that to me after you blew me off?" Seriously? You're an asshole!"

"Watch it, Irwin. I have my reasons."

Ashton shoved his chair back, striving over to Michael's table with his friends following behind.

"Ash, what are you doing." Calum whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, don't go over there and pick a fight." Luke muttered.

"You better explain those reasons right now, Clifford, or -"

"Or what?" Michael smirked wickedly, "are you gonna punch me Ashy?"

"Don't answer, man."

"Ignore him. Ash."

Calum and Luke's pleas fell on deaf ears. "Give me one good reason why you didn't help us last night."

"No."

"You promised you would be there! You jack ass. I thought I could trust you. I thought maybe you were different than what everyone thought you were."

"Why would you think something like that, idiot."

"I don't know." Ashton shook his head, "obviously, I was wrong. You're nothing more than a lonely reject with attitude problems."

Clenching his eyes shut, Calum could smell Michael's rebound from a mile away. Sure enough it came like a lightning bolt, bright and sudden.

"You shouldn't have raised your expectations for me. I assure you high expectations come with high disappointments but I'm sure you know all about disappointment, don't you?" Then with shadowy smile, Michael landed his iron fist, "after all, your own parents disappointed you. I mean, they practically abandoned you by taking you go to this gosh forsaken school."

"How do you know that? Were you spying on me? Did you look through my files! What the fuck is wrong with you." Ashton screamed.

"What's wrong with you? Stealing from a store is a crime, Ya know."

"Fuck you, Michael!" Ashton roared, lunging over the table that separated them and tackling the colored-haired boy.

"Ashton stop!" Luke and Calum shrieked.

Mr. Kali walked into the cafeteria just as Ashton's fist made contact with Michael's jaw. The room was filled with the sound of people gasping in shock and then the instant shouting of everyone trying to encourage the fight.

Small white lights popped in Michael's eyes as he put a hand to his jaw. The lights went away and he looked at Ashton. His face was contorted with fury and his fists were clenched, looking ready to punch Michael in the jaw again. Michael stood there for hardly a moment before he launched himself at Ashton, knocking him to the floor. He kneed Ashton in the stomach. Grunting, Ashton tried to catch his breath for the wind was knocked out of him. Michael took this opportunity to punch Ashton in the jaw.

When Ashton pushed himself up off the floor there was a trickle of blood where Michael had split his lip.

"You," said Ashton viciously. "…you…son of a…" Ashton didn't finish his poorly thought out insult, So with a strangled cry, he ran headlong in to Michael. The force Ashton had put in to his run caused him and Michael to run straight into a table, toppling it over.

Michael ignored the pain in his back from the impact of the table as he and Ashton rolled around on the floor, throwing punches and kicking at each other.

Mr. Kali had called security by now and an officer named Dave jumped in and pulled Ashton back; earning himself an elbow in the nose from Michael before he could get Ashton away.

"Let go of me." Ashton cried out, flailing his limbs everywhere.

"No. Come on." Dave scolded, escorting both Ashton and Michael out of the rambunctious cafeteria.

Everything seemed so quiet in the narrow hallway. Ashton shuffled his feet quickly to keep up with the hasty security guard. As expected, Ashton and Michael were taken to Mr. Feldmann's office. They were let in almost immediately, then told to sit in a chair.  
Ashton slumped into his seat next to Michael, depositing his bag haphazardly in the chair on his other side. He was still dressed in his sharp maroon blazer and white dress shirt with black pants. His hair, however, was an array of messy strands falling in his face.

The principal, or headmaster, (whatever he wanted to be called) wasted no time in scolding the two boys.

"Does anyone care to explain?" Feldmann asked, but put his hand up to stop them from speaking. "You don't have to explain. From the looks of it I'd say you two got into a fist fight, am I right? Please stop me if I'm wrong"

Ashton glanced down at the table while Michael rolled his eyes. Principal Feldmann unlocked a file cabinet, pulled out two files, then tossed them on the desk right in front of the boys. "I won't have fighting in this school. It is unacceptable, intolerable, and pathetic." Feldmann pointed to the files on the table, "this gentleman, is your permeant record. As you can see, both of you have a decent amount of papers in there already. You, Michael, have reached the absolute maximum, but I'll deal with that in a second. As for you, Ashton, this little incident will be written down and stored in your record for the rest of your life. From this moment on, if I were you I would try to do everything in my ability to behave myself and get some good recommendations from teachers to counteract this ugly mark on your reputation. Am I understood?"

Ashton squeaked out a small, "yes sir."

"Good. Now, as for punishments are concerned you will both receive a series of lashings and you will serve three weeks of lunch detention with Mr. Kali, where you will wash the chalk board, clean underneath the tables and chairs, and scrub the classroom floors with a toothbrush. Then you will write out lines on the black board and clean it again. The process will repeat itself until three weeks of lunch is over. "

The two boys blinked a few times, but didn't say a word. It wasn't a good time to talk. Mr. Feldmann sighed, "I really hate to do this, but Michael, your last few incidents leave me no choice. Because you failed your health evaluations yesterday due to being drunk and you are already doing a month of physical labor I have no other choice than to ban you from all off school events."

Michael shot up in his seat, his eyes going wide, "no, you can't!"

"I can and I am, Michael. From this point forward you will no longer have the opportunity to go to the icecream shop, concerts, dances, sports games, or game nights in the local town."

It was the first time Ashton saw Michael blink out tears. "For how long?" Michael's voice cracked at the end of his statement.

"For the rest of the semester. When you come back next semester you can start over with a clean slate."

Michael's lower lip trembled and he quickly wiped his eyes, "but I wanted to see the concert so badly. It's the only chance I have to meet my idols. Please, Mr. Feldmann. It's not my fault I have a problem."

"The only way I can see to fix your problem is to cut you off from any place where alcohol is sold."

"It's not fair!" Michael cried.

"I'm sorry, but I have no choice. Now both of you, hold out your left hands."

Ashton and Michael shakily did so, wincing when the man struck their palms with a thick wooden ruler.

"You are dismissed."

Outside the window, the sky was turning to dusk. Ashton had no idea what the time was, but it was probably around seven or so. He walked out of the building, clutching his throbbing hand under his armpit. He purposely walked ahead of Michael, trying to avoid eye contact. The last thing he needed was for Michael to see him crying. Unfortunately, the red hair dye kid was running to catch up with him.

"Wait Ashton! Look, I need to say I'm sorry."

Just keep your eyes on the road, Ashton's brain repeated this over and over again as he walked a little faster. Every red brick under his foot seemed to stretch longer and longer. Soon, Michael caught up to him, gripping him by the shoulder.

"Get off me!" Ashton shouted, snapping his arm away faster than a speeding train.

Michael stood a few inches from him with his hands held up in defense. "Look I just want to apologize. I didn't mean to get you in trouble today. I was having a really shitty day and I know that's no excuse for my behavior, but I was upset and I took it out on you. I'm sorry."

Ashton blinked back his tears, feeling his sadness turn to raw anger. "Oh now you're sorry? Where was your apology when you left us stranded in the music room last night? Michael, we waited for like an hour. You left us high and dry so we had to do the homework assignment by ourselves. But guess what? We got a failing grade because you weren't there."

Opening his mouth, Michael was about to respond, but Ashton wasn't through talking, "you might not care about school or grades, but the rest of us do. You were there when Calum had his breakdown so you know how much pressure he's under to get good grades and you just fuck him over by not showing up. Thanks a lot, bro. At least now I know a promise from you means nothing at all."

"Ashton, listen to me. I was going to show up last night, I really was, but we had those health screenings and I failed the blood test. Well- that is- They found alcohol in my blood. It's illegal to drink at school and I got in major trouble. That's why I couldn't come over yesterday. I was in Feldmann's office talking to the police and my parents."

Ashton frowned, "why were you drinking in the first place?"

Scratching his arm, Michael looked down at his shoes. "I told you I've been...upset. Drinking helps me loosen up and not be so sad." His eyes landed back on Ashton's hazel ones, "look, all of that doesn't matter. The point im trying to make is im sorry I made a bunch of stupid decisions lately and dragged you into my mess. I promise, hand to God, that I will be at the music room whenever you want me to be there."

Ashton's lips curled up sightly as he stared at the guilty looking boy. What did he have to lose? The worst thing that could happen is Michael is lying again. With that in mind, he says, "Alright. Give my your number and I'll text you when we can meet."

Excited, Michael ran over to Ashton and exchanged numbers. They said their goodbyes once they entered their dorm building considering Michael had to go to his room and Ashton had to go to his own room.

"Bye. I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah. In fact, I'll see you in detention." Michael reminded.

Calum shot out of bed the second Ashton walked in. "Jesus! What were you thinking!" He screeched so loudly the room next door could probably hear.

"Nice to see you too, Cal." He covered his hands over his ears to protect them from the loud noise Calum recently inflicted. "I'm fine if that's what you're worried about."

"Fine? I'm sure you got a hell of a punishment. This school is notorious for that." He rolled his eyes before continuing, "honestly, though, that was the most stupid thing you've ever done. Getting in a fight with Michael Clifford. Seriously?"

"Actually, it might have been the best thing I've ever done." Ashton smiled. He took advantage of Calum's frozen stare to slide past his friend to get to the bathroom.

"Are you on drugs?" Calum question, popping open the bathroom door.

"No." Ashton responded, pulling down his pants. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm trying to pee."

"How can getting in a fight with someone be a good thing? Let alone, the best thing you have ever done."

"He apologized and he promised he would be there for our next assignment."

Scoffing, Calum leaned back against he shut bathroom door, "you don't actually believe him do you?"

"No, but I figure it's worth a shot. Hopefully he will show up."

"I think you have too much faith in people."

Maybe he does.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seeing someone you love suffer is one of the most heartbreaking things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re getting a little more information on Luke and Michael. 
> 
> Also, I think a friendship between the four is brewing :)

Hissing in agony, Ashton squeezed his eyes shut tightly. His hands were killing him all day today. This morning, Calum had begged him to wrap them up in white gaze because of how badly they were swelling. He was struggling to write and he silently cursed himself for not being as smart as Michael who decided to ditch classes. It surprised Ashton how destructive a cane can be to a hand, but he had living evidence to prove how ugly it was.

Science class did not official start yet, however, most of the kids were already there talking to one another about the concert field trip coming up next week. Apparently, they were going to see the Rolling Stones. That is, if they had enough gold stars. Calum made sure he had enough Gold stars left over to give to Ashton if need be.

Luke walked in a moment later with his head slumped down. He looked ashamed of something as he walked quickly to his seat next to Ashton. He sat down quickly, but jumped up just as quickly.

"hey? Are you alright?" Ashton asked, deeply concerned.

Luke simply nodded with his chin tucked down. It looked like he was trying to hide something. When Luke sat down again, this time more slowly, Ashton caught sight of it.

The bruise that had begun as a purple stain above Luke's eyebrow had sunk into the socket itself, and so now it had the appearance of a black eye. His heart raced as he stared at his friend's face. Anger rose in his voice at the thought of someone hurting him, "what the hell happened!" He didn't mean to sound so harsh. Luke's terrified blue eyes were enough to make Ashton drop down to a whisper. "Luke? How did that happen?" He asked, his hand tempted to rub over the purple welt, but he resisted the urge on account of how Luke may react to being touched.

The boy attempted a laugh, but it sounded so incredibly forced, "oh, it's nothing. I caught it on some shelf in my room. You know how clumsy I am." He didn't appear anxious, nor did he speak too quickly. Maybe Ashton was wrong. Maybe it really was some accident. Then, it dawned on Ashton, he hadn't seen the bruise on Luke's eye in music class which was literally five minutes ago. Instead of calling Luke out on the bluff he decided to make sure his friend was okay first.

"It looks painful, did you put ice on it?"

Luke shook his head as the teacher, Almorado, walked in.

"I didn't have time." He whispered

"you should ask to go to the nurse."

Luke shook his head rapidly. "No. I'm fine. Can you just drop it."

"Luke."

"No, Ashton! Drop it!" Luke's eyes had that thing in it. They were practically pleading.

Ashton sighed, but agreed nonetheless to drop the subject. Maybe Luke went to his room to grab a book and bumped his eye off of a shelf. It was possible. Right?

"Can someone tell me what potential energy is?" The teacher asked, beginning class.

________________________

"I'm not going to stop asking you until you tell me what happened."

"Calum please make him stop." Luke cried, tucking his head into Calum's shoulder as they sat on the livingroom couch. Calum was trying to do homework, but his two friends would not stop talking.

"Ashton. Leave him alone, if he doesn't want to tell you then he's not gonna tell you. Leave it alone." Calum said, patting Luke's head with his hand. He went back to writing in his notebook while Luke stuck his tongue out at Ashton.

"Oh real mature."

"Stop being a meanie Ashton and watch the TV show."

"Can you two start reading your history books! Don't you have a test tomorrow?"

"Yeah but -"

"Start studying. Both of you." Calum pointed at Luke, smiling at him the whole time, "We have a date with Michael tonight in the music room and I want to have this four page packet of quadratic equations finished by then."

Ashton narrowed his eyes, "whoa, since when are we meeting with Michael?"

"Since I texted him this morning telling him we need to do a makeup assignment since we failed our last one. I may have guilt tripped him into it by reminding him that the only reason we failed was because he bailed on us."

"Wow, way to call all of the shots." Ashton said. Calum rolled his eyes.

"Look I was just interested in getting that zero dropped from my gpa before my parents see it online."

Luke nodded. He always understood Calum's way of thinking unlike Ashton. Nevertheless, Ashton was fine with the idea. He took a sip of lemonade before opening his large history book. He loves how big the world is, and he desperately wants to travel someday, but why does there have to be so many names of little countries to memorize.

An hour passed by in what felt like seconds. Calum got three quarters of the way through his homework before he had to stop. All three of them made their way to the music room in Mariliam.

"We're always going to this building, I swear." Ashton complained along the way.

"Just be thankful our dorm is close to the Mariliam building and not ten thousand yards away like the Gennivile buildings." Calum muttered.

"Thank God." Luke whispered, puffing as he walked up the stairs. "whoever decided to put a million stairs outside of this building was obviously on drugs." His tiny bit of anger showing through. Ashton and Calum snorted at his quippy comments.

"You know, if we told Michael about our roof hideout we wouldn't have to hike all the way to the Mariliam." Ashton pointed out.

Calum shook his head, "absolutely not. Our hideout is sacred. As far as I know, Michael is still the sworn enemy even if he is trying to help us with our homework or whatever. The hideout is off limits to strangers."

Ashton raised his hands in defense. "Look bro, I was just asking."

"And I'm just telling you, it's a no."

Luke opened the door earning a few thank yous from the others. They casually went upstairs to the music room. Inside, there was a giant piano, two large violins, African drums, and another drum set. Multiple acoustic guitars lined the white board. Calum went directly to the brown wooden cabinets and pulled out the bass.

Michael walked in just as Ashton sat down on his drum seat. His eyes were covered in dark eyeliner and his shirt was a loose tank top with the words "screw authority." Ashton's mouth dropped open.

"Bro. You know this is a school video right? The whole class is going to see it eventually." Calum stated.

"Yeah I know." Michael shrugged.

"You look like Billy Joel." Luke joked from behind Michael.

"Wow!" Michael exclaimed sending Luke a death glare. "And you look like an ugly fairy. Oh wait, that's how you always look."

Luke scrunched is nose, his eye brows furrowing together, and his hands going to his hips. "I'm not a fairy. I'm John Legend." Luke said with a smirk. He knew he sounded ridiculous. That's what he was aiming for because it pissed Michael off.

Narrowing his eyes, Michael stepped forward, closing in on Luke. Ashton stood up to break up the boys. "Let's turn on the camera okay." He said trying to divert their attention away from eachother.

Before thinking, he pressed the recording button. Michael sent him a death glare. "We didn't plan a song to sing, idiot."

Ashton shrugged, "just pick something."

"I know like one song by Bob Dylan."

"Alright we'll play that song." Calum said, "easy enough."

"I don't know any of his songs." Luke admmitted softly.

"Oh of course you don't." Michael snapped.

Luke's body starting shaking the way it does when he's nervous or terrified.

"Hey! Leave Luke alone you wanker." Calum yelled.

Michael's eyes widened,"what? It's not my fault he doesn't know the song."

"He knows a lot of songs. Just pick another." Ashton stated bluntly.

"I don't know another one of Bob Dylan's songs and that's the fucking topic for our homework assignment."

"Whose fault is that?" Calum asked, raising an eyebrow.

"His!" Michael yelled pointing at the shaking blonde.

"Guys, the video is playing. Say something to it." Ashton urged. As of now, only Ashton and Calum were in the shot. Michael and Luke were off to the side. Things were already incredibly awkward and all Ashton wanted to do was start over.

"What do you want to say?" Michael asked, walking in to the shot. "Hello. We're sort of a band now?"

When Calum scoffed, "We're not a band," Michael dramatically threw his hands up in the air.

"We're suppose to be for the project." Ashton mumbled through clenched teeth.

"Oh right. Yeah, we're sorta, kinda, a band."

"We need your help requesting songs." Michael said earning three malicious glares.

"This isn't a fucking Instagram story. There's no audience right now."

"Someone stop the recording." Calum shouted.

Michael pressed the button off. "Are we ready?"

"No, we still don't have a song." Ashton barked.

"Okay, fuck it. I'm tweeting my friends and asking them to request a song." Michael whipped out his phone. Ashton slouched down on the chair while they waited.

"You have friends?" Luke asked, raising his eyebrows. Michael shook his head, "not really. I should have said peers."

Luke nodded, "I figured as much." He quit smiling when Calum smacked his arm mouthing the words, "knock it off."

"Alright. Someone said to sing teenage dirtbag. Does everyone know that song?"

All three of them nodded. "Perfect. Let's do it."

Ashton settled on the drum set, Michael stood by the white wall and Calum was to the right. Luke however was still behind the camera.

"Luke get in the shot." Michael shouted.

The boy shook his head, hands tightening at his sides. "I don't want to."

"Come on Luke." Ashton whined, "we didn't come all the way down here to not do this."

"I..." He trailed off, staring at his phone.

Irritated, for the first time since Ashton's been here, Calum raised his voice at Luke, "get in front of the damn camera!"

The scolding from his best friend had Luke startled. He huffed in irritation and stuck his face directly in the camera taking up the whole shot. The only thing the camera lens could see was Luke's glowing blue iris.

"Wow. It's not all about you, Luke." Scoffed Michael.

"Oh okay. That's it, I'm leaving."

"You can't leave." Ashton said, standing up.

"This is why no one likes you." Michael shouted.

"I like you. Come back." Calum yelled.

Luke slammed the door shut. Tension filled the room quickly after his departure. Three pairs of eyes landed on eachother before ripping away to stare at random objects.

"I'm sorry for wasting your time, Michael, but I guess we have to do this later." Ashton finally said, standing up and turning the camera off.

Michael nodded slowly, "alright. I'm sorry if I said something to upset him."

"It's alright. He has to go somewhere tonight anyway." Calum responded with a shrug.

No one pressed on the subject, instead, Michael gave them a sly smile. "Have you ever played the game need for speed?"

_____________________

"We're gonna get blocked in."

"We're not going to make it."

"Yes we will." Michael, slammed his remote roughly to the right, making his car speed off the bridge of the high definition city.

"Sweet." Ashton said. They were up eleven thousand points when he heard a knock on Michael's door. Jolting upright, Michael powered down his PC, and threw the remote and laptop under his couch cushions.

"If that's Professor Lash we are in so much trouble." Michael hissed, "it's eleven thirty."

"What do we do." Ashton panicked.

"Hide in the closet." Calum whisper yelled.

"No! Don't!" Michael yelled quickly, but it was too late, Ashton and Calum already tucked themselves away in the closet and Mrs. Lash was already walking inside his room.

"Hello." Michael said, spinning around to face the lady with a bubbly expression.

"Lights should be out Mr. Clifford. It's way past the school's late policy."

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep. My head's bothering me." He lied smoothly.

"Would you like some aspirin from the nurses office?"

"That would be nice."

"I'll get it for you, but you better be in bed by the time I return. You're in enough trouble as it is." She reprimanded.

"Yes ma'am." Michael answered appropriately.

The second she left, he pulled open the closet door allowing Calum and Ashton to leave the confined space.

Taking a deep breath of fresh air, Ashton looked skeptically at Michael. For a while, the two held a heavy staring contest before Calum was bold enough to ask, "why do you have a stash of liquor in your closet?"

He was putting in nicely. The reality is, Michael's closet was packed with multiple bottles of whine, beer, and vodka. How Michael even smuggled all of that inside his room was beyond Ashton's understanding.

"You can't tell anyone." He demanded. His stance was harrowing, but his eyes looked terrified.

"I wasn't going to." whispered Ashton.

"Thank you." he muttered, then with a fake happy voice he said, "you better go before she comes back."

Calum nodded, tugging Ashton's arm to lead him out of the dorm room. Inside their own room, Calum couldn't stop talking about it as Ashton changed into his pajamas.

"Think of the black mail! Dude, we could make sure he never touches Luke again."

"We're not black mailing him." Ashton responded. He finished getting dressed and was hoping into his bunk. The soft grey comforter was lumpy at the bottom of his bed so he fluffed it and pulled it over his bare chest. He slept on the bottom bunk because the top bunk use to be Luke's place.

"How can you even say that?" Calum carried on, "We finally have power over this jerk and you're just going to throw it away? Who does that? I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."

Sighing, Ashton rolled over in his bed so he could face Calum. The messy dark hair on Calum's head stood out among the bright white tank top he was wearing. "Listen." Ashton began, "He's already in a lot of trouble, if we black mail him he might freak out and hurt us more. Plus, I don't think he's a jerk. I never did think he was jerk. I think he's lonely and he wants some friends. Why else do you think he invited us to his room to play video games."

"Um, I don't know. Maybe because he didn't have any plans because we blew his whole evening promising to sing but then ended up not singing."

"Come on Calum. I had fun with him. Didn't you have fun tonight?"

"Yeah." Calum groaned, "I guess I did. Not because of him though."

"You just don't like him because you think he's an asshole."

"That's not true. I don't like how he treats us."

"He's willing to sing with us for the school project, isn't that something?"

"He says he's going to sing with us. We never actually sang anything yet, though, so how do we know if he actually will."

Slamming his head back against the pillows, Ashton rolled back over. "I'm done with this conversation."

"So am I." Calum said.

__________________

Ashton was half asleep when he heard the faint noise of a door creaking open. It was probably Mrs. Lash checking on them. He snuggled closer to his soft pillows, trying to get even more comfy than he already was. He was having one of those amazing soft and warm nights where everything felt extra comfy. Dozing back to sleep, he had the slightest feeling someone was leaning over him.

"Ashton." A voice whispered. Blinking slowly, Ashton looked up and sure enough a pair of electric blue eyes hit his hazel ones.

Luke was hovering over the side of Ashton's bed, body shaking badly. His little blue tank top was falling off his shoulder and his soft grey sweatpants were sagging low.

"Luke, is that you?" Ashton asked sleepily. It was nearly three in the morning according to his alarm clock.

"Can I get it?" His voice was different sounding. Ashton noticed the thickness immediately, how it was raspier. Leaning up on his elbow, Ashton squinted. The room was pitch black and his eyes couldn't adjust to any lighting yet. Still, he tried to get a better look at Luke's face through the dark.

"What's wrong?"

Scrambling into the bed, Luke practically pushes Ashton over as he scoots in. Lifting the covers up, Ashton helps make room for Luke to crawl next to him.

"Luke?" He asked again when he saw the boy curl in on himself, "are you crying?" His voice was thick with sleep, but his curiosity was waking him up.

A loud sniffle answers Ashton's question. Luke shoves his face into Ashton's neck and his body begins shaking with sobs. Ashton immediately tightens his arms around the boy and begins carding his fingers through his thick, blonde hair.

"Shhh. Luke. Don't cry." He said gently, his heart twisting at the feeling of his best friend sobbing against him. He can feel the boy’s hot tears falling against his neck and all he can do is hold him tighter. "Please, Luke. Talk to me."

Luke continues crying, his voice growing louder in the quiet room. Soon, the bunk above creaked and Calum's slippered feet came walking down the latter.

"Shit, I thought that sounded like Luke." He exclaimed. "What's wrong, Lu?" Sitting on the edge of the bed, Calum took one of his friend's hands into his own.

The boy's crying came to a calm, and he was only sniffling. "I - it" he hiccuped, jumping with Ashton, "it hurts." A fresh wave of hysterics started up again and he sobbed out brokenly. Calum's eyes turned dark with worry.

"Fuck. What hurts?"

Luke's crying turned to heavy coughing. It looked as if he were going to vomit, so Ashton quickly rubbed his back in soothing motions. "Shhh. Easy Luke. Take a deep breath."

Ashton's fingers start tracing gentle patterns into Luke's skin, knowing it's always calmed himself down when he was upset. It was the one thing his mother use to do for him before she starting dating his abusive stepfather.

Hopefully the soft touches will calm his friend down. Luke's fingers tighten in Ashton's shirt and his body tenses for a moment before relaxing against Ashton once again. Luke is still shaking uncontrollably, his breathing ragged, and his eyes red and swollen, but he seems to be calming down again, at least for the moment. Clearly Luke is dealing with something horrible and Ashton cares for him too much to ever let something like this happen to him again. From now on, Ashton was going to be there for Luke whenever Luke needs someone to lean on. Ashton is going to make damn sure he's there until Luke is ready to talk. There wasn't much he could say really, because he doesn't actually know what happened and he doesn't think now is the time to ask anymore.

"Shhh. Luke. We're here for you. We've got you." Ashton soothed, planting a kiss to Luke's sweaty forehead. He heard a whisper come from Calum's mouth and he turned to find Calum crying too.

"Oh not you too. Calum, it's okay. He's gonna be okay."

The tan boy, shook his head, "This is my fault."

"How can you say that?"

"If I hadn't been so caught up in my own life and my ow stupid problems maybe I would have seen how much he was hurting. God, I didn't know he was in this much pain."

This was too much hurt for Ashton to handle. Both of his best friends were crying which was making him want to break down. He feels absolutely useless because he doesn't know what to do.

Calum stopped crying after a little while, and decided to hold Luke in his own arms. He planted kisses to his head, rubbed his back, spoke soothing words but nothing he did stopped the crying.

It was absolutely heart shattering at this point to listen to Luke's raspy voice nearly give out in strained cries.

"Listen Luke, you're my baby brother and I love you. I never want to see you in this much pain. It hurts me to see you like this. Please just tell me how to make this better. Tell me what you need. I'll do anything you ask, just please talk to me." Calum pleaded. He shifted Luke in his arms and allowed the boy to rest on the bed again.

Once he was back in bed, Luke buried his face in Ashton's shoulder, crying for dear life. He needed to get it all out. He cried and cried, his nose sniffling and stopping him from breathing properly. An anguish moan escaped his swollen red lips. "I can't do this anymore." He coughed, body shuttering with sobs. "Please." He sniffled helplessly into Ashton's chest. Gripping tightly, Luke's fingers curled into the fabric of Ashton's shirt. He finally passes out from exhaustion wrapped up in the warmth of Ashton's arms.

"I can't believe how upset he was." whispered Calum in the eerie quiet that suddenly overcame the small room.

"What could have possibly happened to him?" Ashton asked, completely terrified. His small friend's short hair was resting up on his sweaty forehead and one particularly long strand was soaked from his tears.

Calum shrugged. "I hope he's okay. I don't even know what's hurting him."

"I know." Ashton muttered, looking down at the soft pale face of his best friend. There were still tear tracks on his face. His sweatpants hung low on his waist, they nearly fell off when he was thrashing in Calum's arms crying his lungs out.

"Can you pull his pants up. He would probably be more comfortable like that. I remember you told me he hates feeling vulnerable." Ashton said, pointing to Luke's grey sweats.

Calum nodded. He went to pull up the clothing but froze mid motion. His chocolate eyes worriedly looked at Ashton. "Um, Ashton. I think you should see this."

The older boy hummed, sitting up slowly, careful not to wake Luke. Luke's underwear has pulled down slightly from the sweats pulling on them, and Ashton can see bruises on his hips. He stared for a moment, caught up in the reality of what they could mean.   
Calum seemed to be wondering the same thing because he took the hem of Luke's underwear in his hand and gently pulled them down to get a better look. There were dark red marks all along the top area of Luke's ass and the further Calum pulls the underwear down the further the marks travel. At one point the skin is broken and Ashton can see the blood in Luke's undies.

"Oh my God. What happened?" He asked as if Calum knew.

"Looks like someone...hit him. A lot."

He pulled the clothing down further to reveal even worse marks. Ashton winced feeling sorry for the small blonde who they were invading the privacy of.

"There are cuts on his ass! His skin is cracked all over the place." Ashton could sense the anger and pain in Calum's voice.

He gently lifted Luke's boxers back up and around his hips, as Luke started to curl in on himself seeking the comfort of his friends. His hands aimlessly felt around, until he found Ashton's shirt and he clutched it again. Ashton pulled the covers up around them, but first he invited Calum in the small bed. He wraps his arm around Luke's waist, and Calum's hand clutches his. They are all connected in the small bunk bed that was sure to break with the weight of the three of them.

The next thing Ashton knows he is waking up hours later at the crack of dawn to Luke's nose plastered to his neck. Memories from last night came pouring over Ashton like a bottle of ice water.

"Hey. You're up." Calum whispered. He was sitting on the sofa with a bunch of books open. "I hope I didn't wake you by moving my books around."

Ashton assured him he didn't. His attention went back to the shifting boy in his arms. "I think he's waking up." Ashton informed Calum the second he saw Luke's eyes peak open.

Luke blinked a few times, eyes adjusting to the light of the room and the outline of Ashton's face. Calum was quickly by his side a moment later. "Luke? Are you awake?"

The blonde groaned. "I'll take that as a yes." Calum said, reaching out to nuzzle Luke in a hug.

Luke was warm where the blankets were enveloping him and he felt well rested for the first time in a long time, but stretching reminded him of everything his body has been through the past few days. He's sore all over; His butt bruised and aching, head stuffed and throat raw from bawling.

"How are you feeling?" Ashton asked, looking as if he just read Luke's thoughts. Perhaps a grimace took over his face when he stretched. "I'm okay. I don't feel very good. But I'm better than yesterday." Luke sighed and looked down at the white bed spread. "Thanks for being there for me." He whispered, and Ashton could hear how Luke's voice wobbled dangerously. He had to stop the boy from crying again.

"It was nothing. What are best friends for, right?"

"Yeah." Luke smiled again although it was a broken smile. He still reached out for Ashton and rested his hand on the older boy's hand. There was no doubt whatever freaked Luke out yesterday, was still bothering him today.

"You know we have to talk about this." Ashton said sympathetically.   
Luke's eyes widen in panic, he can't talk about something he's not comfortable with. He pulls his legs up to wrap his arms around them, resting his chin on his knees and casting his eyes down once more.

Calum glared at Ashton for putting Luke in this state of shock. "He doesn't have to talk if he doesn't want to."

"But he does Cal." It was the first time Ashton rose his voice and it caused Luke to jump. Lowering his voice, Ashton continued, "he does have to talk about it. It doesn't have to be right now if he's not ready, but he needs to talk to somebody because he's hurting and I am not about to let him hurt like this ever again." He started speaking directly to Luke, "please Luke, I can't stand to see you this sad. You need to talk to someone."

It's silent for a few minutes and Ashton doesn't think he's going to respond, but he surprises Ashton by saying, albeit quietly,   
"This is hard for me. I don't know how to tell you, I-" he breaks off and takes a deep breath, "I don't know how to talk about it, Ash." There are tears gathering in Luke's eyes again and he can feel the panic building up in his chest.

Ashton scoots up the bed and takes Luke's hands into his own. "Just... tell me what you need to get off your chest. Anything at all. Take your time and just trust me, please. I just want to help. No matter what it is." He's looking directly into Luke's eyes, brows furrowed and worry etched into every feature of his face.  
There's a heavy weight in Luke's stomach, pressing down and making him feel sick. The last time he opened up about all of this he was scared shitless and although it went okay initially, it didn't turn out well in the long run. Now there's even more to get off his chest, and that's the part that terrifies him the most. Talking about what happened has him physically shaking. He tried to tell himself that everything will be alright. That it's just Ashton and Calum here with him. But Luke can't bring himself to open up   
  
"I can't. I'm sorry Ashton."

Sighing, Ashton reached out and gave Luke another hug. "Okay. You don't have to tell me anything. Not right now, just calm down. Don't cry."

Luke's eyes were betraying orders from his brain as tears dripped down his face against his will. "Can I stay in your room today. I don't want to go anywhere else."

Ashton and Calum shared glances before they both agreed to let Luke stay in the room. It was six am now; it was time for breakfast.

"Will you come eat with us?"

Luke shook his head no, "I'm not hungry."

"How about we drink some juice then." Ashton tries.

"Or coffee." Calum added, knowing what buttons on Luke to press.

"Okay." The boy agreed reluctantly. He can never say no to coffee, especially Starbucks coffee.

The three boys walked down the hall together, they entered Luke's dorm to allow their friend a chance to change into the school uniform before heading to the coffee station parked right outside the Mariliam.

Ashton heard him whimpered as they approached the building. Before he got a chance to ask, Luke answered for himself, "I'm sorry I walked out on you last night." His eyes flooded with tears again. "I didn't mean to ruin your grades."

Calum walked in front of Luke, stopping the boy from going any further. "Hey, look at me. You didn't ruin anything Luke. We can record the video some other time. The most important thing right now is that you feel better. So let's go get some of your favorite coffee and relax in the common room.

That's exactly what they did. The TV was playing in the common room, so the three boys decided to watch batman reruns and old Warner Brothers cartoons. Unfortunately they got too comfortable because when the bell rang none of them wanted to get up.

"Ugh, why do we have to go to class. Yuck." Calum whined, snuggling further under the blankets.

"We better hurry if we don't want to be late." Ashton informed them as he stood up.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Can we really make a difference?”   
> “We can try.”

English, Math, and History flew by but not without the penalty of a bucket load of homework. Ashton felt as if he were drowning in work at this point in the semester. Hopefully, he can keep his grades up, not that it mattered, no one at home cares if he passes or fails. It was weird, now, but Ashton wanted to succeeded in classes for self satisfaction more than anything else. To prove he can do more with his life than simply steal.

Today was the day Mr. Day was going to play back their first video ever. It was the video where only Luke sang. As if this week hasn't been bad enough, now Luke has to sit through his cringe worthy performance. Which in reality was a really good performance, but that's not how Luke saw it.

"I love how many of you put an effort into making the song your own." Mr. Day praised.

"Group Dynamite absolutely smashed it with adding an electric guitar and drums to the song over my head."

Group dynamite, (aka Brandon's group) stood up and cheered for themselves. Dimming the lights, Mr. Day played the video of the boys. The first few seconds were loud skillfully played instruments before Brandon sang. But when he did sing it was like a tsunami hitting the shore. Ashton had to bit his lip to keep from laughing.

The next video was completely different. This kid, the one with the blonde hair, Tucker's his name; he was sat in his tiny dorm room with glowing lights behind him from Christmas and he played the piano. It was beautiful how well he played the notes. When he sang, his country accent was gone. He sounded amazing with a slight rasp to his voice. Ashton was deeply impressed. Dirtbag dan sang the second half of the song and then Max and the green mohawk guy finished it. That group had more talent in their pink fingers than Brandon's group had in their whole bodies.

"Next up we have a special young lad who made the song his own by simply holding out different notes and changing certain pitches."

Luke went Scarlett red when he saw his face on the screen. He slid down in his chair, trying to hide his face in his maroon blazer.

"Unfortunately his group did not sing with him, nor do they have a name yet for the talent show. Nevertheless, this was too great of a performance for me to pass up." Mr. Day pressed the play button on the video and Ashton could feel Luke stop breathing.  
He also sensed someone else tense up. Beside him, Michael froze in place. No longer interested in his phone, the colored haired boy stared mesmerized by the screen. He looked over Ashton's shoulder to see Luke's face. Which was impossible considering Luke was hiding behind his clothes in mortification.

When it was finally over, Mr. Day gave them the lesson on percussion and then class was done. Michael shut his notebook quickly so he wouldn't miss his shot at asking Luke a question.

"Hey, can I talk to you." He asked awkwardly, standing by Luke's chair.

"I have to get to class." The boy mumbled under his breath.

"I just want to say, you have a really good voice."

"Thanks." Luke blushed. He's not use to compliments, especially from his sworn enemy.

"I saw something in the video that surprised me," Michael laughed nervously, "it was, um, the CDs in the background. I don't know where exactly you were. It doesn't look like a dorm room, but where ever you were, there were CDs of Blink 182 and All time low." Unsure of where a Michael was going with this, Luke decided to show he was paying attention by nodding.

"Right. So," Michael gulped, "I really like those bands too. I didn't think someone like you would be into that kind of stuff. But since you are...would you be interested in.. Um... maybe playing Guitar Hero with me?"

This was completely unexpected on both ends. Michael didn't know what possessed him to ask that question and Luke didn't know how to respond to something so out of the blue. Hell, it was out of character for Michael. He awkwardly shifted on his feet, praying for Ashton or Calum to save him, but they didn't. They were leaving it up to Luke to decided what he wanted to do.

"Um. Ok. Sure. I'll meet you tonight?"

"Yeah. Okay." Michael made a bee line for the door leaving the other three standing there with their mouths wide open.

"That has to be the weirdest thing that has ever happened to us." Calum said.

"For real though." Luke said in response.

The next time Ashton saw Michael was in lunch detention where the two stood side by side, writing lines on the chalk board.

Mr. Kali, their history teacher, was grading papers at his desk while the two worked their butts off. Once they were done covering the entire chalk board in white writing, they got Mr. Kali to check over their work.

"Excellent job lads. Now clean it off."

Huffing in annoyance, Michael ran a chalky hand through his messy hair. He bent down and picked up the bucket of soapy water that they filled at the beginning of lunch. Tossing a rag at Ashton's outstretched hand, Michael began scrubbing the board clean.

They were halfway through when the door opened and Brandon Conley walked in.

"Sorry I'm late to detention Mr. Kali. Before you punish me, I can explain. See, Mr. Feldmann wrote me this note excusing my absence because I was needed at a very important soccer practice. We're going against the Christians Brother's Academy tomorrow so we need to pull some big moves."

"Very well then Mr. Conley, you are excused. Take a seat."

How unfair. Brandon gets out of lunch detention because of a soccer game meanwhile Michael and Ashton worked their asses off because they aren't on the soccer team.

Slamming his towel down, Michael spun around on his feet to face teacher and student head on. "Are you kidding me? You're just gonna let him get away with skipping the entire lunch detention? It's a punishment for a reason, you know."

"He has a note from Mr. Feldmann." Said Mr. Kali.

Brandon laughed, "and look who's talking. Aren't you, 'Mr. Screw authority', at least, that's what your shirt says." He turned to the teacher and stated, "by the way, that's against the dress code."

"He's right, Michael. You're shirt is completely unacceptable."

"Oh come on!"

Throwing his arms up, Michael made a drastic roll of the eyes. He tugged at his shirt and shouted, "this is called expression."

"It's also called a dress code violation."

"For the love of --" he trailed off, shaking his head angrily, "why doesn't Mr. Football star over here get in trouble. He's wearing short shorts and a freaking tank that says 'swag'."

Brandon narrowed his blue eyes, "I told you, I was at practice."

"And I was here where I was suppose to be."

Brandon growled, "Mr. Kali, I think he needs to be punished for that shirt. It's mocking the whole concept of this school."

Mr. Kali nodded, "you're right. Come here, Michael."

The boy scoffed, shaking his head, "No. This is stupid. I'm wearing a shirt, not starting world war three."

"It's against the dress code. Now, I'm not going to ask you again, come here or I will send you to Feldmanns. I'm sure you know, at this point, you will be expelled for anymore trouble or difficulty."

Refusing to look away, Michael held his ground, his shoulders caving in with emotion. He was unwilling to look away as he made his walk of shame over to his teacher. Mr. Kali already pulled out the weapon of choice. A thick wooden paddle that was hanging on the wall. A sick smirk twisted around Brandon's lips. Ashton couldn't stand that kid.

Michael's hands clenched into shaking fists at his side. Turning slowly, he finally tore his gaze away from Mr. Kali's face. He was now facing Ashton. An embarrassed grimace crossed over his handsome features when he made eye contact. It was natural, Ashton supposed, to turn red in the face when being sentenced to a beating in front of your friend.

He squeezed his eyes shut to protect his dignity. Mr. Kali let the paddle fall against his sensitive skin. The loud sound echoed in the small room, but Michael didn't let a noise escape his mouth. He was determined to make a statement no matter how difficult that may be. Apparently, it was quite difficult when Mr. Kali applied three smacks in a row. Michael yelled out at the last one despite himself.

"You will head to your dorm room and change this instant."

"Fine." Michael bit out.

The teacher finished with a total of eight swats. Luckily, Michael didn't fall apart. He held it together long enough to leave the class room before breaking down in angry tears. This school sucked.

Ashton stayed a few minutes in the classroom to tell Brandon off. The said boy, was no longer smiling, in fact he was snarling. "You should have hit him harder! His attitude was completely unacceptable."

"You know something, you're a grade A asshole." Ashton shot back.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is. and just because you're on the soccer team doesn't make you better than everyone else."

"Tell that to my uncle."

"I will." Ashton said, looking Brandon square in the eye.

"You don't scare me Irwin."

"Good. I'm not aiming to scare you. I'm just being honest with you." With that, Ashton left the room and headed back to finish his other classes. Hopefully Brandon would stop pestering them if Ashton could convince the principal that the jocks in this school are not that important. It was a hell of an idea, but sadly, it was wishful thinking. Principal Feldmann will never agree to stop funding for the sports teams.

Later in the evening, Luke, Ashton, and Calum showed up at Michael's dorm room ready to play Guitar Hero. Once they entered, the game was already set up.

"Grab an instrument and lets play." Michael said, picking up the fake guitar.

"I wanted that." Luke whined.

"Too bad. You're gonna be the lead singer." Michael said handing Luke the mic.

"Fine." He grumbled.

"I hope you don't mind, I brought Pizza from that shop on campus." Calum said.

"We brought coke-a-cola as well." Luke said, face still miserable.

"Which do you like better? Pepsi or Coke?"

"See you can't ask that." Calum stated as he pulled out some paper plates.

"I like Coke better." Luke admitted.

"Me too!" Michael smiled at the younger boy.

"I like Pepsi better." Ashton said, to annoy the other two. It was true though.

"I can't even tell the difference to be honest." Calum admitted with a laugh.

"I like doughnuts." Luke said out of no where. He was starting to get a tiny little smile going.

"Yeah, especially from Dunkin." Michael replied.

Luke agreed with him, and the two began talking about every fast food restaurant on the face of the earth until Ashton stopped them. He only stopped when Luke was belly rolling with laughter and he was sure his younger friend was happy.

"Guys. Are we going to play Guitar Hero or what?"

"Definitely." Luke said with a mouth full of pizza. "As long as we play a song by Blink 182 I'll be good."

Michael grinned, "I knew we had the same music taste. Wait until you hear my playlist."

Watching his two friends hit it off, Ashton couldn't help but smile. Finally, Luke was happy again. It felt good to see his blue eyes return to their natural shade of blue rather than the electric bluish red shade it turns when he is crying. It was also nice to see Michael so talkative and goofy instead of lonely or angry.

"Hey, you guys, there's a new movie coming out called finding Dory." Ashton said as he sat behind the drum set.

"It's not called finding dory, it's called where's dory." Michael informed him. "I know. I've already got tickets to see it."

Luke snorted, "you watch Disney movies?" When a Michael nodded, he started howling in laughter.

"Hey listen Hemmings, Nemo was a good freaking movie."

"Can't argue with that." Luke said, hitting the fake guitar buttons and strumming the strum bar. "I like the Penguins of Madagascar."

"Hey. I told you, I'm the one playing guitar. I've mastered it."

"Fine. It's not as great as the real guitar anyways." Luke stated titling his chin up and tossing Michael the fake guitar.

"Sassy much?"

"That's Luke for you. You'll get use to it." Calum offered. The second after he said it, he felt strange. How would Michael get use to it unless they hang out often which obviously wasn't going to happen. He didn't even know why he said that.

After a few more minutes of talking, (they can't shut up when they're together), the boys finally started playing a song.

"Wow. Did you hear how good that sounded?" Michael asked, jumping up and down like a little kid who ate too much candy.

"Yeah it was fun." Calum admitted.

"Fun? It was more than that! It was bloody spectacular!"

"Michael, it was just a game." Ashton said with a chuckle. His friend was getting really fired up.

"No, no, Ash. Can't you see it's more than that. I think we should become a band."

"A band?"

"We already are, for the talent show. Remember?" Luke offered.

"No, like, I think we should be a real band."

"What are you saying?"

"Let's make a band. Let's have fun. We can play other gigs at the school. For example, we could play the spring fling festival, or the dinner dance, and of course the talent show."

"What's the point." Ashton asked, putting a major downer on Michael's idea, "I mean, brandon already has an amazing band who is going to win every show anyway."

"The point is, we have a voice. I figured that out today when they were trying to tell me what to wear. I realized they are trying to take our identity away, to take our voice away. They can't tell us who to be or what to wear. They can't tell us that classical music is more important than rocken roll."

"Michael -"

"Listen, guys, with the way we just played tonight we could actually do this. We can be the voice for so many other kids in this school that are feeling suppressed. And trust me they are. Why wouldn't they be? All Mr. Feldmann cares about is Sports. Unless you're a jock at this school, you are a nobody. But we can change that."

"Come on. You must be joking."

"if we do well, people will start to realize they have a voice as well. I don't care if we win the damn talent show. I just want to touch the lives of other people and let them know that it's okay to not be okay."

"Easy buddy."

Michael clutched the guitar with a white fist, his eyes blinking back tears. "I've never been the type to speak up. I can't do it alone. But I've alway wanted to. Please guys, this is my only opportunity to make a difference."

"Do you actually think we can make a difference."

"I don't know." Michael said with a sigh, "all I know is we have to try."

"And what happens when Feldmann doesn't like the messages we're preaching?"

Michael shrugged, "it's a risky move, but we might be able to do it through music. It can be our excuse. You know damn well Mr. Day will support us."

Ashton shrugged, "I don't see why we shouldn't give it a shot."

Calum snorted, "I can. For one, michael use to beat the crap out of Luke. I still don't trust him. And number two, can Michael actually play real instruments? Can we write songs? How will we get our first gig? And oh yeah, Luke is terrified to sing in public!"

Everyone was silent for a moment. "All minor set backs." Michael reassured.

"Michael you're out of your mind." Calum said.

"We'll practice."

"I don't know." Ashton said.

"I'm only doing it if Luke's doing it." Calum replied looking at his younger friend. He knew for sure Luke wouldn't agree to do it.

"I'm sorry. I can't." Luke responded, his face paled drastically as if he were going to be sick or something.

"Shhh. It's alright Luke. We don't have to." Calum said into his ear.

Michael stomped his foot like a child. "We have to be a band anyway for that school talent show music class project thingy. Why can't we start there. We can practice for that, and then, if we want, we can sign up for spring fling."

Luke nodded, "okay. I can try. I don't want to let you guys down. And I know how important good grades are to your parents, Cal."

Michael cracked a smile, "then it's settled!" Ashton watched as he raced over in the kitchen area to grab a notepad and pen. "Alright everyone write down your phone numbers and times you are available to work on the project."

And so they did...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Inspirational chapter. I feel like the story is moving nicely. 
> 
> On another note i’m going to have the most busy week of my life this next week and I am stressed beyond belief. :(  
> I hope everyone else has a nice week. Oh and if anyone likes R5 they have a new song coming out on Friday. Preacher Man sounds lit :) <3


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Field Trip!

It's become a routine rehearsing for the school talent show. Ashton, Michael, Luke and Calum would meet in the music room after their last class and practice strumming on their instruments while gathering more information about eachother.

Michael grew up in a rich home. They figured this out when they spent numerous lunches in his dorm room. First of all, he didn't have a roommate, which was odd enough, but secondly he had video games galore. Every shelf was full of expensive electronic equipment and games. He was beast at guitar hero; his favorite video game which he had three versions of. When they found out his parents were in charge of a video game company it explained why Michael had all the gadgets in his possession classifying himself as a high tech nerd.

At first, he was horrible at playing real guitar, but Luke taught him relatively quickly and Michael was a fast learner. Michael himself, was learning a few things about the other boys. For instance, he enjoyed the way Luke was always willing to listen to him. He learned that Luke was a bit of a copy cat. He followed Michael around for a while, eating the same things he ate, repeating the things he said, and laughing when he laughed. It felt amazing to suddenly have this small puppy like person looking up to him. Michael's most memorable moment of this was when Luke complained for weeks about how much he hates meatballs. Eventually Michael admitted that he likes meatballs. Luke had said, "I think they are delicious too." From that day on, Michael knew he had Luke on his side no matter what. All Luke wanted to do was impress Michael.

As for Ashton, well, Ashton enjoyed Michael's enthusiasm towards problems. He has a deep soul, no doubt, and he definitely has a few secrets in his past that Ashton can't coax out of him. Not that it matters though, Michael's problems make him even more relatable. Likewise, Ashton can talk to Michael about real world issues and Michael will take it seriously. When he talks about his concerns about the school Michael is always lending his ear and offering advice unlike Luke and Calum who carry the conversation back to something goofy. Also, Ashton enjoyed how Michael filled the small age gap between the boys.

It was Calum who had the hardest time accepting Michael, but he slowly opened up to the loud colorful boy after a few practices. They first started doing covers of bands they liked such as All Time Low, Mayday Parade, Blink 182, and Bruno Mars. Their sound was a little rocky, and cringe worthy but it was good. They still have a lot of mountains to climb if they want to actually win the Talent show this year. Calum is the only one who seems absolutely determined to win. After all, he is the one with the most to lose. He needs that scholarship to prove to his father that he can go to a good college.

It was nearly eight thirty in the evening when something different happened. The boys were minding their own business in the music room when Brandon and his group of friends barged in.

"Well well well, look who it is." Brandon taunted, walking circles around the four kids. His posse of friends laughed and high-fived one another as Brandon continued to taunt them.

"If it isn't the loser squad. What are you up to losers? Aw, Are you making music? That's so cute."

"As a matter of fact we are." Michael was the first to boldly stand up for them.

Brandon huffed, pushing the strand of hair dangling in his face up towards the roof. "That's great. But you're done now. So get out."

"We're not done yet." Ashton said quietly.

Raising his eye brows, Brandon cocked his head to the side before punctuating, "you don't get it, do you?" Ashton rolled his eyes as Brandon continued, "we want to practice now. So it's time for you to go. That's right. You heard me. Get out!"

"This is a public music room." Calum said, standing up from the chair he was sitting in. The other three boys followed his move and stood up as well.

"It's also a public music room located in the school that my uncle runs."

Michael narrowed his eyes while Ashton shook his head in disbelief. "Look we don't have to leave if we don't want to."

"Correction. You do have to leave or I tell my uncle you're causing problems. If I do that, you can say bye-bye to any chance you had at seeing the Rolling Stones concert tomorrow."

Luke's eyes widened and he looked at Calum with fear only to find Calum equally as scared.

"So boys, what's it gonna be?"

Michael had nothing to lose, he wasn't allowed to attend the concert anyway due to his punishment for failing the health screening. He did know, however, that Luke, Ashton, and Calum were excited to see the Rolling Stones. So he did the only thing he thought was right, "Fine. We'll leave." He surrendered.

"Smart boys. Good luck on your musical journey." Brandon laughed sickeningly.

Michael flipped him off once they were out the door and out of sight. "Seriously we have to win now, just to beat that asshole." He proclaimed as they walked back towards their dorm rooms. "where are we suppose to rehearse now?"

Calum shrugged, "I say we head to my room and think of a new place to practice."

"Oh and we need to think of a band name." Michael added, bumping Luke's shoulder playfully, "got any ideas french fry?"

Luke pushed Michael's bicep, shaking his head in annoyance. "Don't call me that. And no. I have no idea what we should call ourselves."

"Definitely not dynamite." Ashton scoffed. "That's what Brandon and his team of bastards are calling themselves."

"How about Pizza."

"Not a bad idea." Michael said in agreement.

"Sorry, but no." Ashton stated.

"Why not?" Calum pouted, "pizza's amazing."

"I know but is that really what you want people to say? Oh look, it's pizza?"

"Fine, what are your great ideas?"

"I don't have any."

"Then stop bashing mine."

"Hey guys, don't fight." Luke said jumping in the middle of Calum and Ashton.

"Let's screw the band name for now and think of a place to play where brandon and his gang of bastards can't bother us." Michael said, holding the door open for his new band mates. They walked up to Calum and Ashton's dorm room and crashed on the couch.

"I might know a place where we can rehearse." Luke said, looking over his shoulder towards Calum. He wiggled his eyebrows giving him some weird signals.

"No." Calum spat, pointing a strict finger at Luke.

The boy broke into a pout. "Oh come on."

Fortunately, Calum was weak for his younger friend. "Oh come on Lu, Do you really want to show him that?"

Luke held his unrelenting gaze, which snapped Calum in half, "fine!"

Smiling, Luke bounced up on the couch saying, "I have the perfect place. It's our secret hideout."

"But you gotta swear -" Calum began, "-that you won't tell anyone. Even if we hate eachother again. Even if you really want to hurt us. You cannot hurt us by exposing this."

"Whoa, this shit must be precious if your making me swear."

"Michael I'm so dead fucking serious." Calum said raising his voice a little.

"I know you are, chill bro."

"It's all I have left. I can't lose it." Calum whispered mainly to himself.

"I won't let you lose it. I promise right now that no matter what happens, I won't tell anyone about your secret hideout."

"Swear you'll protect it with your life?"

"I swear."

"Alright." Calum sighed, "let's show him."

They walked to the middle door in the hallway. The one that had a large brown handle that looked dirty and torn up. In bold letters, a note on the door said: stay out.

"Cool, so your secret hang out is in a restricted area. Wow. Should've seen that coming."

"You know you're making this really hard for me." Calum irritably swung the door open and walked upstairs. Luke was on his tail, smacking his butt on the way up.

Michael's mouth was hanging open and Ashton took advantage of the opportunity where he was finally not the newest one. "Don't worry, you'll get use to it." He said.

Michael's mouth dropped even wider once they reached the top of the stairs and he could see the entire roof top.

"Oh my God!" He shouted.

"Welcome," Calum raised his arms to his side, "this is where we actually recorded You Found Me."

"I think you mean this is where Luke recorded you found me." Said Ashton, as he wrapped his arm around Luke's neck silently praising the younger boy once again on his bravery. Luke blushed.

They have all been very touchy towards one another since Luke's emotional breakdown last week. They have all slept in the same bed each night, holding Luke until he stopped shaking. They rubbed his back until he felt safe with them and opened up to them a little. Luke still didn't say much, but he would talk about his favorite movies and some things he use to do in his childhood like watch certain TV shows. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

"Whoa, you have a dart board up here?" Michael's excited voice brought Ashton back to reality. "How did you get all this shit up here?"

"I have my ways." Calum explained, taking his redish maroon beanie off, to rub his soft black hair, then he put the hat back on his head.

"Do you mean your daddy paid to have this stuff moved up here." Michael asked bluntly.

"Maybe he did. But it seems like he forgot about it." Calum smirked, "so now it's mine." He winced when Luke punched his arm. "Ok. Ok. I meant It's ours." He shouted, play fighting with Luke. They ended up tackling each other to the floor, shouting swear words at each other.

"Hey guys, come on, let's show Michael the instruments and CDs up here." Ashton offered, taking their attention away from each other.

Calum stood up laughing, "yeah alright." He said shaking the dirt off himself.

Jumping up, Luke followed Michael over to the place where the CDs were.

"Wow you have a ton of great bands. Look at this, Panic at the disco, all time low, blink 182, All American Rejects, the 1975's ablum, and Bon Jovi. Shit that's awesome."

"Would you stop swearing in like every two sentences." Luke stated, eye brows darting upward, "it's getting annoying." He smirked.

Michael replied equally as savage, "I'll stop when you stop shaking."

Luke's smile vanished and he looked down at his own arms to make sure he wasn't actually shaking right now. To his relief, he wasn't. Red faced, he looked up to see that Michael wasn't smiling either.

"Did I say something wrong again?" Michael asked softly, "I'm sorry if I did."

"No. It's okay." Luke regained his smile, "I'm good."

"Seriously, It's really cool up here." Michael said taking in the scenery. There was three large booths and tables that could fit six over to the right of the roof. Their was a large couch and a TV on the other side. To the left was a bunch of music equipment and chords to microphones and amplifiers. The center of the room was carpeted and left bare to be a performing stage.

"So this is where you guys hang out." Michael said seriously. "It's nice."

"Thanks man." Luke said, as he walked over to the pile of notebooks behind the couch cushion. "Are we ready to write a song."

"Write a song?" Calum scoffed, "no offense Luke, but I think we should stick to doing covers. None of our lyrics are worthy enough of being called good."

Michael's shook his head, "no, I think that's a great idea. We should write a song! We need to express who we are and what better way to do that than through a song."

"Wait a minute, let me get this straight." Ashton cleared his throat, "you want us, to write a song criticizing the school and then perform it at a school event?"

Michael slowly nodded his head, agreeing whole heartedly.

"That's never going to work." Ashton exclaimed suddenly, his boisterous voice coming out. "Feldmann will have us kicked out of this school faster than you can say sorry. We'll be dead if we try something like this."

"I appreciate your concerns Ashton, but I already thought things out. You see, Feldmann can't kick us out of the school if we are doing things for the school."

"You lost me."

"Listen, it's very simple. We won't get kicked out because we will be making money for the school by performing."

It was Calum, this time, who laughed in Michael's face, "oh yeah? And how do you propose we do that?"

"Easy, we will start a school 'choir' and hold a fundraiser for it. Parents will support the idea."

"Yeah but they won't support it after they realize we are not a real choir but instead we are four losers rebelling against boarding school."

Michael bit his lip, clearly trying to think things through. Ashton could tell he was losing the battle. But just when he thought Michael would give up, the other boy surprised him by saying, "then we'll get support from our peers. Hold a rally, get the underdogs on board. People in this school will want to help, because half the people in this school agree with us. They like rock and pop music. They like other things other than football. The artists are under-appreciated. The tennis players. The chess club will be completely on board -"

"Oh thank God we have them." Calum sassed.

Michael sent a glare, "the point is, we get our peers to fill out a petition allowing us to be the school band. And we can still make money for the school by performing off campus events."

Calum shook his head, "this is never gonna happen."

Michael's frown deepened. "Not if you talk like that."

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to put you down Michael, but I'm just being realistic. There is no way any of this is going to happen. First of all, we're not that good. Second of all, the kids probably won't sign the petition and third of all we all have our own shit to deal with. I mean, hell, Luke can't even sing in front of a camera, let alone an audience. And you, Michael, you can't leave campus grounds or did you forget Feldmann took that away from you when you failed your screening test.

"Yeah I know, but I'm telling you, Feldmann wants money. He doesn't care how he gets it as long as he gets it. As for Luke, he can work on it. And the kids will sign our petition we just have to sell it!"

"Shit Michael this is never gonna happen."

"Just try. Please Calum just try this for me. It could work. But it's only gonna work if we're all in this together."

"Did you just quote high school musical?"

"Shut up, Luke, that was a great movie." Michael barked, turning his attention back to Calum he blinked a few times, waiting patiently for his response. "What'd ya say?"

Glancing between his three friends, Calum lips slowly turned upwards, "alright I'll give it a shot. What the hell, right?"

"Yay!" Michael cheered jumping on Calum's back and giving him a hug. "I knew you'd come through for me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you get off me you big bloke." Calum laughed, trying to flick Michael off his back like an annoying fly.

"You're awesome Calum!" Michael cheered, messing up his friend's hair.

"Aw wow." Calum complained, fixing his disheveled set of hair.

"We'll come on then, we have a song to write." Luke said from his spot on the couch.

"You have a lot of notebooks here, Lukey wooky." Michael teased, "what's inside?" He reached out to grab the notebook out of Luke's hands but was cut off with a loud vicious slap. He retracted his left hand when Luke slapped it, and cradled it to his chest.

"Don't. Touch. My. Notebook." Luke said dangerously low. Michael's right hand went to touch the book and Luke slapped him again.

"Ow!" Michael yelped, gripping his aching hand. "Geez someone is defensive. What? Is it like your diary?"

"Yeah. Basically." Luke admitted sheepishly, "I wrote a lot of personal songs and poems and I don't want anyone reading them."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Michael said raising his hands in surrender.

It took them a few minutes, but the boys found a blank notebook and started writing their first song together. It was difficult for them all to agree upon a topic, but Michael was determined to sing about screwing authority.

"Listen Michael, there are rules for a reason." Ashton explained, "and it's not necessarily a terrible thing to have them."

"I know that, Ashton, but I'm not talking about regular rules, I'm talking about rules made by people that abuse authority. Rules that are meant to hold people back from reaching their full potential."

Eventually, they all came to the conclusion that they would sing a song about being a victim of authority. They were all aware of the risk they were taking. But they were willing to take it.

"Alright guys, I'll see you tomorrow for some more song writing. We have to make sure this song is what we like before we perform it." Michael said, "it's gonna take a lot of work."

"Sounds good." Luke said, "but we can't do it tomorrow."

Michael looked up from the blue bounded notebook to glance at Luke, signaling for him to continue.

"We have a field trip tomorrow." Luke said sheepishly, "I'm sorry you can't go. I wish you could."

Michael's face looked crushed as he realized he wouldn't be able to see the concert with his three friends. The fact that they were even able to see a Rolling Stones concert is ridiculously amazing. Mr. Feldmann was against it but Mr. Day budgeted for it a while ago.

"Oh, it's fine. Yeah, you guys go enjoy yourselves." Michael smiled painfully, "bring me back a t-shirt, yeah?"

Luke nodded, "I will." He said solemnly. The atmosphere grew chilly when the four departed, Calum couldn't stand the thought of Luke sleeping in his own room for the night. He made Luke promise ten million times to call during the night.

\-------------------

"I just want to throw away my education, eat pizza in bed and cry." Calum said to Ashton the next morning while they were waiting in line to get their field trip bracelets. Ashton didn't realize but to leave this school, they have to be tracked with a bracelet and constantly have student counts. He never felt more like a prisoner.

"I mean, the way Jennifer Lawrence talks in this video is so fucking sexy. Her voice is all raspy. Doesn't it make you want to lay in bed and eat pizza all day?"

"No." Ashton snorted, it was his turn to get the bracelet.

  
"Okay Mr. Irwin, you're on bus three seat six."

Ashton nodded and moved to the side and listened to Mrs. Lash tell Calum to go to seat six. Calum smiled, grabbed his lunch bag, and Starbucks coffee then went with Ashton towards bus three. Ashton took a step on the bus step, but was yanked by the shirt backwards.

"What the - Calum, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"We have to see where Luke is first."

"He's probably on the bus already. You know how punctual he is."

Calum rolled his eyes, "tell me about it. It's quite annoying." His eyes roamed the sidewalk but lit up when he spotted his blonde friend walking over towards him, "oh good. Here he comes."

"Hey Calum. Are you guys on this bus too?"

"Yeah. Seat six." Calum said.

"Damn. I'm seat 17." Luke kicked at the ground.

"No worries, we'll just switch with someone." Calum slung an arm around Luke's neck, walking him onto the bus. Ashton trailed behind. They managed to get Luke a seat behind them all to himself. "Thanks again Tucker."

"Ain't no problem." He said, giving them a toothy grin. Tucker was now sitting next to max in seat 17.

"I like Tucker a lot." Luke admitted to Calum and Ashton once he was sure the other lad was out of ear shot.

"Me too." Ashton agreed.

"Yeah he's really nice. I met him two years ago because we were both the new kids at this school so we helped each other out." Calum explained. He took out his cell phone to pull up Instagram while continuing his conversation, "His dad lost his job earlier this year. It was incredibly devastating for his whole family. Even Feldmann was upset when Tucker announced it. He was allowed to skip all last semester due to family problems and finacial issues. Now his family's living in a dumpster on the side of New Valley Road and Tucker is fortunate enough to live here. At least until he graduates."

"Fuck Calum -" Ashton couldn't think of something to say to that. "How awful."

"He's alright. Summer's institution is like a home to him."

"His poor family. Did they lose their house?"

"No, they just choose to eat of a dumpster for fun. Yes they lost their house."

Ashton narrowed his eyes, "well I ate out of a dumpster before and I never lost my house."

Calum and Luke grimaced, "Why did you do that."

"Because I didn't want to starve to death." Ashton spat bitterly.

"Why didn't you just steal?" Calum asked and Luke whacked him across the head.

"Because stealing is wrong."

"Bro, Ashton starved as a kid and your first question is why didn't he steal?" Luke shook his head annoyed at Calum's lack of sympathy.

"Well Luke, I didn't want to upset Ashton by asking him a personal question, kinda like how I don't want to upset you by asking you why the hell you were crying your eyes out for a week."

Luke's face heated up with anger, but it dissipated the second a familiar red haired boy entered the bus.

"Michael?" Luke asked softly, "what are you doing here?"

He failed to answer Luke's question when he plopped next to him, sliding under the bus seat.

"Um Michael? What are you doing?" Calum asked, tilting his head to look at the hunched over kid. That position cannot be comfortable Ashton thought as he watched Michael shrink his shoulders even smaller to fit under the tiny space beneath the seat.

"Shhh! I'm not supposed to be here."

"Yeah we know that." Calum said. Michael stuck his tongue out. "Did you sneak out."

Michael didn't have to answer, he simple gave them his cheeky smile and they all knew the answer was yes.

"You're bad Michael Clifford." Calum stated, shaking his head at the foolish boy.

"You know it." Michael grinned.

They awaited their professor's arrival and once Lash got on the bus all four of them let out a sigh of relief. Michael actually did it!

"Shit bro, if they catch you, " Calum shook his head, "I don't even want to think about what they will do to you."

"Oh they'll probably just expel me. Which is good, I've been working on getting expelled for years."

"Why would you do that?" Luke asked, sharply.

Michael turned his green eyes upon the younger lad. "Try to get expelled?"

Luke curtly nodded, and Michael shrugged, "simple, I never wanted to be here. My being here is the reason my family can't even look me in the eye. It's the reason they haven't called or visited me in the last three years."

Luke's eyes narrowed, "why does everyone have to hate this school! I love it! It's my fucking home and everyone keeps throwing up all over it!" He made an attempt to leave his seat, by standing up, but as soon as he made eye-contact with Professor Lash he changed his mind.

Noticing Luke's dramatic move, Professor Lash made her way over to their seat.

Michael quickly ducked back under the bus seat, squeezing into an even smaller ball than normal.

"Is everything alright Mr. Hemmings?" She asked when she reached his seat. Luke's eyes were damp. But he quickly fixed that with a swipe of his sleeve. "Yes." He whispered, "I'm fine."

Mrs. Lash sighed, "very well then. Stay in your seat." She said it ever so gently.

Before she left, she held her gaze on the bus seat for a little while longer, then eventually turned away.

"Did you see that?" Michael whispered, "I swear she looked right at me, but yet she still missed me. Wow that crazy bat is blinder than I thought."

Luke shook his head, "Stop. Talking."

"Look Michael, you're obviously bothering the kid." Ashton said, "so stop talking crap about the school. It's nice that they even let us go on a field trip."

Michael sat up again, and played with the loose string on his pants, "look, the school is fine. It's a great place. I'm just mad at myself for what I did to get put in here."

The question lingered in the air: what did Michael do? But no one asked. It was too depressing of a conversation to have right before a Rolling Stones concert.

The bus ride brightened up, when the boys started chattering about their plan to find a gig in New York to play at."

"I don't care if it's some small beaten up bar, if they want us, we're going." Michael said.

Calum nodded, giggling with Luke as they posed for selfies.

"What are you two doing?" Ashton asked, then he noticed something that made him shouted in alarm, "is that my phone?"

Luke and Calum burst out laughing.

"Give me that!" Ashton yanked it away from them. His photos were up to three-hundred and half of the pictures were Luke and Calum making the most stupid faces. "Oh fuck you guys."

"Aren't we pretty." Calum joked.

"Oh yeah, that's a lovely look on you, Calum." Ashton showed him a picture where Calum's eyes were shut close and his mouth was hanging open like an ape.

"Oh come on, that's one of my better ones."

"You two wasted so much space on my phone, now I have to spend eight years deleting things."

"Aw you poor miserable boy." Calum laughed, he turned towards Luke, watching him slide a pair of sunglasses over his face. Calum reached over and took them off his face. Luke pouted, reaching over Calum's head, trying to grab the glasses back.

"It's mine." He whined.

"Don't wear it when your inside the concert."

"I wasn't going to. I just wanted to wear it right now to block out the sun."

Ashton noticed the glaring sun, shining directly into Luke and Michael's eyes. "Give it back to him, Cal."

"Yeah, since when did you become a thief?" Michael asked, "I mean, you can't just take them if he's wearing them."   
Reluctantly, Calum handed the glasses back to Luke.

Soon, the bus stopped outside of a large arena. The kids on the bus were chatting up a storm, a lot of talk about how cool this was going to be.

"Alright students, listen up!" Mrs. Lash yelled, standing at the front of the bus where the driver was.

"You will each be provided with five dollars for food and drinks. It is cheaper for you if you show the cashiers your bracelets."

A few kids began whispering and snickering in the back of the bus.

"Quiet!"

Tension silence filled the empty atmosphere. Mrs. Lash sighed, "when you go inside the arena you will be set free on your own for four hours. At ten o'clock sharp you all are expected to be lined up in front of the bus where I will count each of you to make sure you are all here. If anyone is late or tries to run away you will be suspended or expelled. No excuses so plan to meet here at 9:30 that way if you are late you will still make it by ten. Does everyone understand what I am saying?"

A murmur of 'yes ma'am' was chorused quietly.

"Very well. I want you all to remember this is a reward for your good behavior in school and we want you to have fun. With that being said, you may go and enjoy yourself."

Mrs. Lash touched the Bus Divers arm and he opened the doors. She walked off the bus and every student jumped up and ran off the bus.

She handed each child a 5 dollar bill as they passed.

"Thank you." Ashton said to her as he passed, and she smiled.

"Thanks." Calum said, he stood with his arm linked to Luke's. They were both hiding Michael behind them. Mrs. Lash raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

Luke grabbed the five dollar bill and smiled. It was his silent thank you.

"Mr. Hemmings, here." She placed another 5 dollar bill in his hand, "in case you need an extra." She winked at him which caused Luke to blush in embarrassment, but he was thankful. Mrs. Lash was always very kind to him.

"That was cool." Michael said as soon as they got inside the building and he came out of hiding. "Now I have a five dollar bill to use."

"Yeah." Luke said, not nothing to look at Michael. He was too busy staring at the amazing venue.

"Wow. Look how big it is."

"I know right. Oh and look, there's the stage." Ashton noted.

Luke chuckled with Ashton, gipping his arm tightly and jumping up and down like an excited squirrel.

"Calm down, blue eyes, we'll get in there soon enough. First we need food."

"Ooh, and shirts. I really want a shirt." Luke said looking pleadingly at Ashton.

"Yeah go for it. You don't need my permission."

Luke nodded, but then looked at Calum, silently asking his the same thing.

"Go ahead Luke, it's fine. Ash and I will get the food."

"I don't want to go alone." Luke admitted.

Michael slung his arm around Luke's neck, "well lucky for you, I want a shirt as well."

They walked through the halls of the arena, waiting in a long ass line to get a T-shirt.

"There are so many people." Luke complained, standing on his tippy-toes to look around.

"Merch is so expensive oh my God." Luke cried when he saw the price tag on the hoodies and hats.

"I just want a simple Rolling Stones t-shirt and that's like twenty dollars."

"It's only five dollars for students," Michael said, his finger pointing to the small print.

"How did you see that?"

"I have Eyes like a hawk."

"Oh shut up."

Michael and Luke waited in line for a while, talking about their favorite songs and places they would like to play. Both boys agreed that their first gig should be here at the Coles Sports and Recreation Center. By the time the boys got to the desk, they were pumped up from all the talking and laughing.

"We want two stones T-shirts please." Luke said and then he showed them his bracelet.

"that will be ten dollars."

Luke placed the money on the table. He smiled at Michael once he received the two stones shirts.

"Look Michael! It's real! It's really real."

Michael snorted, "you don't get out much do you, french fry?"

"Shut up." Luke squeaked. He raised his arms up, to slip on the shirt and Michael caught a quickly glance at the waistband of his boxers. Teenage mutant ninja turtles? Really? Luke slipped on his shirt and he instantly looked out of place. A baby face, and short blonde hair in all black. Michael thought to himself: why am I friends with him?"

His question was answered when Luke complimented how cool the Rolling Stones shirt looked on him.

"You look like Mick Jagger."

"Shut up, Luke, seriously." Michael rolled his eyes fondly, "come on, we need to find Calum and Ashton and pray they didn't eat all of our food." Hopefully they got pizza.

"I hope they got pizza." Luke said, lazily walking beside Michael.

"You just read my mind." Michael announced, "because I could really go for some cheesy gooeyness."

"And pepperoni's."

"Plus breadsticks."

"And Pepsi."

"Or coke."

"Coke's pretty good." Luke admitted, "but there's something about Pepsi and pizza."

"Or, you know what's really good? Dr. Pepper."

"Yes! Shit I hope they got that."

Ashton's boisterous voiced echoed in the loud hallway. "Guys down here!"

"Damn, he is really loud." Michael whispered in Luke's ear smiling as the younger boy laughed. Michael could make Luke laugh so easily.

"Guys! Over here! We got cheesy fries and milkshakes."

"Well, it's not pizza and Dr. Pepper." Luke said.

"And it's not even Pepsi or coke." Michael added.

"But I guess it will do. As long as it's a chocolate shake."

"Knowing Ashton it's probably vanilla." Michael said half-heartedly.

"Then they failed." Luke said matter-of-factly.

"Hey guys. Are you ready to find our seats?" Ashton asked, carrying three trays of french fries.

"How much did you order?"

"With our student cards, it was three dollars for a medium, and five dollars for a large."

"So I got the large and Cal got the small, and then he bought the milkshakes with the remainder of his money."

"Sweet deal." Michael said in a nonchalant tone.

Finding their seats was easy, the rows were clearly outlined with big bright numbers and the boys had their seat number outlined on their bracelets. When they sat down, Ashton could see the side of the stage pretty well. This was turning out to be one of the best experiences of his life.

"It's so freaking loud in here." Luke complained, putting two hands over his ears to block out the noise.

"It's a concert uggie, get over yourself." Michael yelled, yanking Luke's hands away from his ears. They stared at eachother, giving one another pointed looks.

"Uggie?" Calum laughed, "what the hell?"

Michael slouched back down in his seat uttering, "yeah you know, uggie, the famous dog."

"I'm sorry come again?"

"He's a famous dog, ok. Type him in online if you don't believe me. I just figured Luke acts like a fucking dog all the time he might as well have a dog's nickname."

"You're so mean." Luke said, sticking his tongue out, "but it doesn't matter cause I love dogs more than anything so I will happily accept the name."

"Great, uggie it is."

Shooting an irritated glare at Michael, Luke went back to covering his small ears from the loud chatter around them.

"What is wrong with him?" Michael asked Calum.

"Nothing, he just doesn't like loud noises. Why are you so focused on Luke anyway? Let him be and enjoy the concert yourself."

"I was just trying to be a good friend to the little ugg."

"Well why don't you become my good friend and make a bet with me on who the opening act is going to be."

"Oh you are so fucking on." Michael said rubbing his hands together. "I say AC/DC."

"No way. I think it will be Ed sheeran."

Snorting out his milkshake, Michael hunched over in laughter. "Ed Sheeran! Ha!"

"It's possible. He opened for them in 2015."

They finally stopped bickering once the lights died down and the opening act went on stage.

"The Struts."

"I guess we both lost."

When the Rolling Stones finally got on stage everyone lost it. Michael especially, was a little out of control. For one, he decided to stand on his seat and scream out the lyrics at the top of his lungs. At one point he managed to drag Luke on the chair and jumped off with him at the end of the concert.

"Dear God! Be careful!" Ashton screamed as Luke and Michael landed on the floor with a hideous smacking sound. But five minutes later they were laughing their butts off, standing up and high-fiving Ashton. Luke say back down after it was over and began talking like Ashton has never seen. It's like someone lit a match under his ass the way he was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"This is the best day ever."

Ashton agreed. Even as they were on the bus back to the school, Ashton couldn't help the lingering smile that was plastered on his face. His three friends were goofy and loud and fun, but they were Ashton's. They were his friends and that felt so good to say. He appreciated the way they were there for one another, making each other laugh. He couldn't describe how he was feeling, he just knew it felt good.

The sky outside the bus window was pitch black, with a few stars gleaming in the distance. He peers over his shoulder to see Michael slouched against his shoulder, sleeping on it, and Luke, pressed against Michael's shoulder, sleeping soundly. How did Ashton get so lucky?

Mrs. Lash collected all of their bracelets at the end of the night, when they were back at the school.

"Everyone is to go to their dorms. Lights out will be pushed back until midnight tonight." She repeated, reminding everyone of the extra special reward the school was giving them.

"You know what really felt good? To be normal for a night and not have bars on our windows." Ashton explained as he walked up the winding dirt road to Valhall.

"It's too bad we can't all stay together."

"I know right. I'm gonna miss you guys."

"We'll see eachother tomorrow at 11:30 for band practice." Michael said.

"In our secret place." They all agreed.

Then they all parted ways. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Addictions

Ashton had the biggest Math test of the year coming up, and he was freaking stressed. He and Luke spent multiple nights studying in the library, but with this new band idea, Ashton has been pre-occupied with practicing for it. Michael had insisted they practice every break and every evening from seven to ten.

After fifteen minutes of sitting still and flipping through his notebook, Ashton was ready to take the 'L' and decided to turn on some old re-runs of the Tv show Friends. He was about to fall asleep, when Calum knocked on their door.

"Hey, Ash?"

"Hey Cal, what's up?" Ashton said turning the Tv off.

Biting his lip, Calum walked in with a strong strut. "You know how badly you've been talking about checking out the coffee house? I was thinking, now would be a fantastic time to check it out! Or, you could get started on the chores in the Mariliam. You want to have enough gold stars for our next outing don't you?"

"What gives? Why are you trying to get rid of me?"

Calum groaned, "oh alright. You caught me. Look I told some friends from the soccer team they could crash here for the night."

"So in other words, you're going to throw a huge ass party in my room and I'm not invited?"

"Right! I knew you were smart. Don't feel bad, Luke's not invited either. It's strictly for the soccer team. Plus, there's gonna be babes doing things I don't think Luke should be exposed to yet. I promised I would ease him into the whole porn thing."

"Calum, gross man." Ashton twisted his face in disgust.

"What? I'm protecting him." His phone started beeping, and Calum shut it off, "well, it's time for you to go."

"Okay, fine. Don't get your dick stuck in too many asses."

"Bye." Calum waved.

Ashton started wondering the halls in search for a quiet place to study since it was Saturday night and the library was closed. He heard a few more sports teams running down the stairs, so Ashton decided to remain on the second floor of the Mariliam. He was still trying to find the coffee house when he stumbled upon an upsetting sight. Brandon and his group of friends, today it seemed to be the croquet team, had a small 9th grader hanging from a nail in the wall by his underwear. They were repeatedly smacking him with a wooden mallet. The small freshman cried out in pain as one of the older boys smacked him. The laughed as he flailed his limbs.

"Aw, What's the matter? Can't take the heat?"

They continued laughing at the crying kid. Ashton's mind instantly flashed to Luke. He remembered how hard Luke had cried that night and the marks on his butt. Ashton's nostrils flared, and he clenched his fists. If Brandon was responsible for hurting Luke the same way he is hurting this boy...

Ashton lunged at him, knocking brandon down to the ground, and sitting on top of his chest. His hands went to Brandon's shirt collar and he shook it violently. "If you hurt him I swear to God." Ashton spat venomously, clawing Brandon's shirt so tightly he ripped it.

"Whoa there, take it easy hot shot. Who exactly do you think I hurt?"

Ashton instantly let go. Standing up, he helped lift the freshman boy down from the nail his underwear was handing on. "For one, you were hurting him."

"Oh we weren't hurting him. It was just a little hazing that's all. Runt wants to be on the croquet team. He's gotta be tough, you know, hot shot?"

"Hazing is illegal in this school."

"Aw look at you, Ashy, reading your student handbook and everything. Just like the good boy that you are. I'll be sure to tell my father about you. He's the main investor of this school after all. I'm sure he would be quite pleased to hear you've been reading the handbook he wrote."

"You're father -"

"Founded this school? Yes he did. Is he the main investor, why yes, he is. Will he believe a word you say about hazing? Well, I don't know, why don't you try it, Ash. See what happens."

The freshman behind Ashton stepped forward, "it's not a big deal. I wanted to be on the team. It's my choice." The boy said rubbing his behind.

"Aw look at that, even the runt you tried to protect doesn't want your help. So move along Ashton and forget what you saw."

"You are an evil poison in this school, bullying kids that are smaller than you. Why don't you just leave them alone and we can all go on our separate ways."

Brandon scoffed, "now where's the fun in that? Come on David, lift the kid back up. He's got another four strokes left."

"Oh please Brandon." The freshman cried, "isn't that enough. I've proved my worth for the team, haven't I?"

"Not yet." Brandon sang in a disturbing childs voice.

"Bye-bye Ashton. Oh, and when I swing by your place tonight for the party, I'll try not to leave any dry cum on your bedsheets."

Ashton shook his head angrily. He so badly wanted to punch Brandon on his fat lip, but he knows Brandon would snitch on him.

"What are you still doing here?"

"Did you give Luke one of these initiations?"

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Luke. Hemmings, another freshman."

"Oh you mean shaky the ghost. No I've never done this to him. Does it look like he would try to be on any sports team? The kid has no hand-eye coordination, of course I never did this to him. Why?"

"Just wanted to know. See Ya."

"Wouldn't want to be Ya." Brandon laughed, as Ashton exited the hallway and walked inside an old custodian closet. Finally, peace and quiet. It was also a good place to cry, which Ashton ended up doing instead of studying.

______________________

"Lyrics are lines of poetry. They are literally words, but they mean so much more." Mr. Day began his lesson with big letters in the center of the white board: Lyrics.

"We've been learning about music for the past month, and how to read notes and how to play instruments, but now, I want to focus on lyrics. You see music is our life, but lyrics are our stories. Lyrics are the way people understand what we are trying to tell. Some of the best messages in the world come from amazing lyrical masterminds."

"The best lyrics give you goosebumps. It makes you cry, it makes you feel! It makes you remember something you've forgotten. It's simply magic. Tonight for homework, I want all of you to record a song with your favorite lyrics. We will discuss the song lyrics next week. Your project is due this Friday. That gives you five days. Plan accordingly. As for today, we are going to discuss how to write lyrics."

Ashton scribbled down the lesson in his notes, while Luke and Michael continued to talk about whatever. It was becoming a regular thing for Luke and Michael to spend all day together.

Luke has officially clung to Michael like a koala, copying his every move. Luke's style was slightly changing to a more darker look. He wore all black and a backwards baseball cap. Of course the cap had color to it. Luke can't not have color in his life.

Calum was busy texting on his phone and Ashton was the only one paying attention so he felt it was ridiculously unfair when he got his test score back and it said he failed. Man, he was really doing awful in school this year. Just last week he bombed a science test. It seems the only subject he's doing well in is English.

"Class dismissed. Ashton can I talk to you for a minute."

Aw fudge.

__________________

"So what did Mr. Day want to talk to you about?" Luke asks on the chilly patio outside of the library. Spring weather was suppose to arrive soon, but for now it was still cold and it didn't help that Ashton only wore tank tops and T-shirts in his spare time.

"He want me to get a tutor for the next test." Ashton mumbled, face turning red from the cold and embarrassment.

"That's not so bad." Luke said, chowing down on his French Toast, "im tutoring you for your math test right now."

"Yeah, but who am I going to find that can help me with music? Whoever it is, is gonna laugh at me."

"Not necessarily." Luke said with great caution.

"Luke, you're sweet, but you know as well as I do that the people in this school are bullies."

"Not everyone."

"Why do you Insist on making this hard for me?"

Luke leaned forward his his chair and looked suspiciously around his should a few times before whispering, "I may know someone who is a music tutor but doesn't want me to say anything."

"Who?"

"I'll give you a hint, he's the guy I hang out with every Saturday when Calum had football practice.

Ashton's eyes widened, "No way!"

"Shhh." Luke smacked a finger to his lips.

Whispering, Ashton mouthed the words, "Michael Clifford?"

Luke nodded with a cheery smile.

"Well now I've heard everything."

It's not that Ashton thinks Michael sucks at music, it's quite the contrary. He didn't, however, expect for a straight D student like Michael to be a tutor.

"Can we go inside, it's getting cold out here." Luke whined, hugging his arms and shivering from the cold.

"You can borrow my jacket." Ashton slipped the said item of clothing off his shoulders and handed it to Luke.

"Thanks." He said, putting it on quickly, and sighing contently as the warmth flooded his body. "So, are you ready for me to quiz you?"

"Yeah go for it." Ashton mumbled, already positive he was going to fail tomorrow's exam.   
  
_____________________

It was about 8:30 when Ashton knocked on Michael's door. He waited a few moments, but no one responded. He knocked a second time, this time a little louder than the first. "Michael? You in there?"

He was about to turn and leave when he noticed that the dorm key was hanging from the nail on the side of the door. Michael just left his key hanging around for anyone to use. What an unsafe move, Ashton thought. He proceeded to take the key off the nail and open Michael's room door in an attempt to teach Michael a lesson. At least, that's what Ashton told himself as he walked in the punk boy's room.

Right away things were...odd. Inside the room it was dark but four candles were lit around Michael's desk. This was another unsafe move. L _eave it to Michael to almost burn down the school._  Ashton hesitantly walked over to the desk with the burning candles. Leaning over to blow them out, Ashton's eyes caught sight of a news article sitting directly in the middle of the table. It was on some kind of display. The kind of display people see at funerals. As Mysteriously odd and creepy as this was, Ashton couldn't help but gasp when he was the headline of the news article: Local Teen Dies from alcohol poisoning - police say peer pressuring was involved.

There was a picture of the boy who died, he was handsome and young. Couldn't have been older than fourteen. His hair was blonde and he was smiling brighter than the sun. Such a bitter tragedy. But it was the second picture that made Ashton gasp in horror. The boy who died was hugging Michael in the second photo. Ashton couldn't believe what he was seeing. What does this mean?

"Hey!" Michael screamed. Ashton leaped back and slammed his back against a wall.

"Michael." Ashton breathed heavily, trying to calm his pounding heart, "You scared me."

Staring intently, Michael walks forward slowly, and quietly closes the door behind him. "You saw it, didn't you?"

Ashton shook his head, "I'm sorry Michael, I just wanted to ask you a question and you left your key on the door- which by the way is really unsafe -but the point is, I'm sorry. Really sorry."

"You saw the news article?"

Ashton didn't know what to say. Michael seemed irritated, but calm. A frightening mix. He decided to be honest.

Michael's frown depended, "well now you know."

"I didn't exactly read the whole thing. I know you knew the kid, that's all."

Michael scoffed, "yeah I knew him. Hell, He was my best friend."

Ashton's eyebrows shot to the sky, "oh I'm so sorry, Micha-"

"Don't be." Michael snapped, tone harsh, "I don't deserve your pity." Then quietly, barely above a whisper, he added, "It's my fault that he's dead."

Ashton stood shellshocked. Unsure of what to say or do, he dropped his mouth open then closed it again. Finally he tore his gaze away from Michael's and looked back at the picture. "What do you mean?" He finally asked.

Michael ran a sweaty hand over his forehead, "you know how I failed that health test because I was drinking? Yeah, Well, I've had an alcohol addiction since I was eleven."

"Wow, that's young."

"That's what every therapist tells me. My parents tried to get me help, but I wouldn't listen. I was a spoiled kid growing up. Still, My parents didn't deserve to deal with the monster I became. It was my fault entirely. I fell with the wrong crowd of people. They made me feel tough and special instead of a nerd like I use to be. I got my first eyebrow piercing with them. It was my initiation to their group. After that it was high school party after high school party. That's when the drinking started and that's how I got addicted. When I was a freshman in high school I had already been to multiple parties, but I met this kid, in class and he looked up to me. He followed me around everywhere, asked me if he could sit at my lunch table. He was the best friend a guy could ask for. He bought me things. We went to movies together. We started doing criminal activities together like stealing booze from liquor stores, all that stuff. Then it just happened. One night we were partying like we always do and he -"

Taking a shaky breath, Michael squeaked out the next statement in a choked voice, "he didn't want to drink anymore. He said he had enough for the night. He even said he didn't feel well. But I didn't listen. I called him a baby. I told him if he wanted to be like me he should drink more. That's what I fucking said Ashton! How could I say that. God, if I knew what was going to happen next I never would've said it. I wish to God I never said it. You don't know how many nights I lay in bed replaying that one moment over and over and over and over again in my mind. It's always those same words. It's always my fault. And he always dies in every dream."

"Michael -- you didn't know."

"Don't." He shook his head curtly, "please don't make excuses for me. I know what I did and I have to live with it. But don't you see? That's why I don't want to be around Luke. That's why I picked on him for years. He's exactly like my other friend: Gullible, fragile. He would start drinking if he saw me doing it. So I had to stop drinking, but that wasn't going to happen because I have a serious fucking problem and so I had to make sure Luke would never want to be like me. So I made him my enemy. But now...now everything is ruined because of this whole stupid band idea. I want to do this band thing so badly, don't get me wrong. It feels like it's the only way I can do something right with my life. But now Luke is starting to become my friend. And I've done everything in my power to stop it. I've slapped him a few times when he gets to close to me on the couch. I call him names. I make sure I make fun of him at least once a day, but he still wants to be around me. He's like a damn leech, attaching to my skin and sucking my blood so tightly I can't get him off."

Smirking, Ashton let out a soft laugh, "I can see that." When Michael didn't smile, he added, "but I don't think you need to worry about Luke. He wants to be like you to an extent, but he mainly wants to be himself. I think Luke knows who he is. And I don't think he would drink if he saw you doing it."

"Don't be so sure."

"It all makes sense, though, why you went through so much trouble to be mean to him and why you sit alone at lunch. You're isolating yourself to protect other people."

Michael nodded, his eyes growing damp, "I was sent to this school, after the accident, to fix myself. But all I did was break the rules and sneak alcohol up here. I've failed my family and now they don't even want to visit me. The left me up here. I couldn't go back over the holiday break or during summer. I spent christmas up here by myself."

"Michael that's horrible".

"No, I deserve it. I'm a horrible person."

"No you're not." Ashton said sternly.

"I appreciate the lies Ash, but I know what I am."

"You just have a problem. Addiction is a real and serious thing. But it's okay. You can still get help."

"How? If I tell principal Feldmann, he'll expel me for drinking."

"Maybe Feldmann would, but Mr. Day wouldn't."

"Mr. Day?"

"Yeah. I've seen him talk to students on our floor about their problems at night. People say he's really good at helping." Ashton admitted, "in fact, Tucker said Mr. Day helped his father find a new job."

"He is a really nice teacher."

"So talk to him. You have to start somewhere."

"I did. I started with you."

Michael and Ashton shared a smile. It dropped off the gothic boy's face though, and he quickly said, "please don't tell Luke or Calum. I don't want them to know."

"Michael - they won't judge you."

"I know you think that, but you don't know for sure. Please, Ashton. I'm just starting to feel at home here. I really feel comfortable around Luke and Calum. I don't want to fuck it all up."

"Alright." Ashton reluctantly sighed, "I promise I won't."

With all of the secrets in his best friends lives, Ashton felt completely helpless and angry with the world. Michael struggling everyday to forgive himself for a giant mistake he made. He's putting all of the fault and blame on himself which is probably the reason he has secluded himself from society for a while. The fact that his parents practically disowned him hurt Ashton to the core. He could relate on a high level of pain when it comes to that.

As badly as he felt for Michael, keeping it a secret from his best friends was going to be insanely difficult. Then again, it's not like Calum and Luke aren't keeping secrets from Ashton. After all, they still haven't informed him on where Luke disappears to on Wednesday nights or why he comes home crying.

Sometimes Ashton hates the freaking world. What has Luke ever done to deserve a life full of shaking and crying. It wasn't freaking fair. None of it was fair! How could Calum's parents ask so much of him? Why do they put all this pressure on him to be perfect? The list of pain goes on and on.

All Ashton can think is hopefully things will get better for everyone and soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I hope everyone had a great Easter. I hope you enjoyed the long chapter. :)


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has a ghost story or at least that is how it has always seemed to me.

"It's a Sunday night Luke. I have to go to Rena's." 

 

"But Calum you're not allowed. Besides you promised you would play basket ball with me." He all but whined. 

 

"I'm sorry Lewy, but I really want to see Rena." 

 

"Are you that horny? Come on Cal, didn't you just have a party last night?" 

 

Calum sent him a disapproving look. "I'm not horny, I just want to see Rena. She's suppose to help me study for this huge ass Math exam." 

 

Luke's face lit up, "I can -"

 

"You're helping Ashton. I don't want to be a bother -"

 

"It's no bother, honestly, Cal. I'd love to help." 

 

"Yeah, but Rena needs help too. Look, it's just me and her tonight." 

 

"Is Nia gonna be there?" 

 

"Yes." Calum answered, "your point is?" 

 

"Nothing. I just knew you wanted sex." 

 

"Lu-"

 

"It's fine. Honest. I totally understand." The blonde turned off the blaring music and sat back on the couch. "I'll just hang out with Ashton." He turned his head towards Ashton who was currently laying in bed. 

 

"I'm sorry Lewy, I'm busy studying also." Ashton said, guilt in his voice. 

 

Hurt, Luke stood up abruptly, "Well fine then assholes! I'll find someone else to spend time with." 

 

"Oi" Ashton exclaimed sitting upright. He was about to tell Luke to calm the fuck down and get back over here but Calum beat him to it. 

 

"What is your problem?" Calum asked heatedly, "you know I always see Rena on Sunday's and you've never flipped out about it before. So what gives?" 

 

"You never hang out with me anymore." 

 

"Oh my God, yes I do. I hang out with you more than anyone else. You practically sleep on top of me every night." 

 

"Well now it's always you and Ashton or you and Michael or you and Rena or you and the whole entire football team! But you never have time for me." 

 

"We literally see eachother every fucking day. What more do you want?" 

 

"I don't know." Luke shouted, angry at himself more than anything for not knowing what he wanted. The heat of the argument died to an awkward silence. Luke's hand twitched at his side. "I'm sorry." He whispered, "I guess I'm just really upset lately. I had a rough night last night and then Michael told me he didn't want me to go in his dorm room anymore and I just feel like you guys don't like me." 

 

"Of course we like you, Luke. We're just - I don't know, busy? Look I know it's a lame excuse but it's true. But once the test passes over I promise I'll start hanging out with you more. Okay?" 

 

Luke nodded, "k." He responded softly walking towards the door. 

 

"Where are you going?" Calum asked. He sounded genuinely concerned. 

 

Luke answered in a heartbeat, "I'm gonna do some chores." He shut the door on his way out leaving Ashton and Calum alone. 

 

"So, are you ready for the big event this Friday? It's gonna be White and Green weekend meaning the whole school is going to go to the soccer game this Friday and then everyone goes to the gymnasium for snacks and music." 

 

"So basically a party?" 

 

"A party we're gonna play at." Calum said smiling. 

 

"You're kidding? That's the event Michael scheduled us to do?" 

 

Calum nodded his thick set of black hair. "It's going to be a night to remember." 

 

"That's what I'm afraid of." Ashton gulped. 

 

                 ______________________ 

 

When Calum left his room, he walked to the office building to ask for a bus pass to go to church. It was his typical excuse for leaving the school on a Sunday. Once they granted him the pass, Calum went over to the girls school building. 

 

Meanwhile, Ashton spent most of his Sunday in bed. He ate a few bags of Doritos then at about one thirty he got out of bed and washed a bunch of his clothes because they were really starting to smell. After he did all that, he finally went to the library to study. 

 

He found a nice secluded space in the back of the library where there were a few book selves covering his view from the front table. This would be a great spot to study if he could actually focus. But unfortunately for Ashton, he found his Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat more important than his books. 

 

He was about to reply to Tucker on Instagram when he heard a soft bump come from the back of the library. Shifting his gaze to the back row, Ashton could make out a small figure. It looked like a girl. He decided to get up and take a better look. 

 

Sure enough, in aisle R-T, a pair of students were making out. In fact, it was Brandon and Barbie. 

 

Ashton took a quick picture, since he had Instagram up, and posted it. 

 

"Hey." He said casually, startling the pair of lovers. Barbie was the first to let out a small gasp, spinning around in guilt like she had just be caught dealing meth. 

 

It took her a moment to catch her breath, but she instantly turned snarky, "what are  _you_  doing here?" 

 

"It's a public library. I'm trying to find a book." 

 

"Yeah, well, maybe you should look some place else." Brandon warned, "unless you want to find that book shoved halfway up your ass." 

 

"Your threats are lacking today, Brandon. Perhaps you should see a doctor to get your testosterone levels checked." 

 

"You're really starting to get on my nerves, Irwin. You're lucky I don't demolish you into the next century." 

 

"It's fine, chill, I was just looking for a book. I'll be leaving now." Ashton said spinning on his heals and walking back to his table. He chuckled at the ten likes he got on his picture then shoved his phone back in his pants pocket and continued studying. 

 

After an hour of relentless Math equations getting mixed up in Ashton's head, he decided to call it quits. Shutting his book, Ashton stood up and threw everything in his backpack. 

 

As he turned to leave, a voice caught his attention. It was... 

 

"Calum?" Ashton asked as he saw Calum and a group of girls in the last row of the library. Amber, with her blue-Jean overalls, was tucked into the corner reading a book while her friend Jade picked a few books off the wall. 

 

"Ashton? What are you doing." Calum whined in annoyance. 

 

"Did you find anything yet?" Nia snapped at Jade. 

 

"Does it look like I found anything?" She said, tossing her long black hair over her small shoulders. 

 

"This is going to take forever." Rena complained. She grabbed her stomach adding, "and I'm starving. Where is Kaitlyn with the food." 

 

"We're meeting her in the cafeteria." Nia explained. 

 

Ashton shook his head at the group of girls from both disbelief and confusion. "Are you even supposed to be at our school?" 

 

"It's a Sunday. The teachers are lenient on Weenkends." 

 

"Why do they even care if you guys come here or not?" Ashton said, "I think it's a dumb roll. It's also dumb to have two different schools. Have they ever heard of combining boys and girls?" 

 

Jade spun around putting her hands on her hips, "you really are new, aren't you?" She rolled her eyes, but continued to answer the question anyway, "it's all because of Kelly Marlo."  

 

"What?" Ashton asked, raising an eyebrow. 

 

"You don't know the story of Kelly Marlo?" Nia asked in alarm. In fact, all of the girls looked startled. 

 

"Should I?" 

 

"yeah, I mean everyone else does." Rena stated, popping her bubble gum between her teeth. 

 

Calum took this time to speak up, "listen Ash, it's not important. It's just some ghost tale the girls tell at their school -"

 

"It's real." Jade snapped, glaring at Calum. Her dark eyes almost resembled the devil. If it wasn't for the cute splash of freckles covering her pale face she might be mistaken as a ghost. 

 

"Take it easy." He muttered, throwing his hands up in defense. "All I'm saying is Ashton should probably be going now." 

 

Calum made a big head tilt gesture towards Ashton and the girls nodded in approval, ready to send Ashton on his way. 

 

"Yeah he should go. But this Friday, at the game, come and find us. We'll tell you all about it."  

 

"Why wait until the game?" Rena asked, "why don't we tell him this Tuesday at our chemistry tournament." 

 

"Girl, that sounds so lame." Jade said, taking a few more books off the shelf. 

 

"I know, ok!" Rena snapped, "anyway," she turned her attention back to Ashton. Her green eyes boring into his hazel ones. "Do we have a deal? Like, you know, are you coming? We can get you all caught up on Summer Institutional things." 

 

"Still sounds lame." 

 

"Still don't care." 

 

Ashton chuckled, "sure." He agreed. And the date was set. 

 

              ________________________

 

Test day at Summers Institutional Schooling was what most people would expect: boring and hard. Ashton never thought his tests would have 50 questions and an essay answer at the end. It was a ridiculous task to ask anybody to complete, especially in such a short period of time. How was he suppose to complete it all. 

 

Shifting uncomfortably on the hard wooden benches, Ashton felt his hands shake as he passed back the stack of scantrons to the students behind him. The small space he had to take the test in was crammed. He could barely fit both his testbooklet and scantron next to each other on the table without bumping into Luke's test. Everyone was eerily quiet in the room. Ashton self consciously wondered if everyone could hear his heart beating out of his chest. Why he was so nervous over a test was beyond him. It's not like it was the end of the world if he failed, but still, he wanted to do well. Life goes on. This was his silent way of dealing with the upcoming failure that was are to happen. 

 

As soon as Mrs. Lash said to begin, Ashton opened his booklet to the first page. Already, the first question made no sense. It confused Ashton and he suddenly felt his back shiver with sweat. He was breathing heavily, and the numbers on the page began mixing together, mocking Ashton. It wasn't fair. He studied so hard for this test and now he can't even understand the questions because his mind was playing tricks on him. 

 

He glanced over at Luke who was scribbling all over his paper, writing a million miles a minute. He quickly tore his gaze away in fear of the teacher accusing him of cheating. He'd rather fail honestly than fail by cheating. 

It's bad enough his reputation is already damaged thanks to his thievery. 

 

He could not focus, all he wanted to do was remember how to breathe. At the end of class he turned in a blank paper with nothing but his name written on it. The look of disappointment was evident on Mrs. Lash's face. It hurt Ashton. 

 

"I'm sorry." Ashton whispered quietly to himself as he walked out of the room, away from his teacher. 

 

He was on his way to History class when Luke caught up with him in the hall. 

 

"How do you think it went? I thought it was kinda hard, but like, not so bad, you know? 

 

Ashton nodded numbly, tears pricking his eyes as Luke babbled on about the test. 

 

"I'm sure you did great. You really knew your shit. I mean we studied fifty million times so it makes sense that you had it down." 

 

"I have to go to class Luke." He said shortly. Luke was a bit taken back, but he nodded politely and went his separate way. 

 

History was by far the worst. Not only was Ashton feeling like an utter disappointment but his teacher just had to have him stand up in a group and give an argument on the text they read in class about the Labor Prime Minister named James Scullin. He was Australia's first Catholic Prime Minister during the Great Depression, and the first to be of Irish descent. 

 

Ashton's group was horrible. The kids were all telling ridiculously lame jokes to one another and playing on their phones all class. Ashton knew for sure they were not going to do well when they present. 

 

Sure enough, the group got to the front of the room and basically read from the text-book. Mr. Kali shook his head, scowling at the boys. 

 

"That is not what I asked you to do, is it?" 

 

None of the kids answered, they just stared at their shoes. Ashton's cheeks flushed a dark shade of red and he felt his throat growing tight. 

 

"So what were you boys doing the whole time? Huh?" 

 

Tears threatened to fall out of the corner of Ashton's eyes. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from letting them fall. 

 

"We were reading the book. We didn't understand." 

 

"If you didn't understand you should have come to me. That's no excuse not to do anything. I want the five of you to write a paper tonight on James Scullin. You may turn that in tomorrow for points because right now you are all getting zeros." 

 

Ashton's face burned with embarrassment. He felt so ashamed of himself. He couldn't help but let a tear escape down his face after he sat down way in the back of the room. He calmed down as he listened to the other groups present, but the humiliation still lingered inside like a poison eating away at his organs. 

 

The next class was music. Mr. Day noticed right away that Ashton looked upset because he told the boy to meet him outside the classroom, in the hall. 

 

"What's wrong, Ashton? You're eyes look tired? Is test day stressing you out." 

 

Ashton nodded and more tears began flowing freely down his face now that someone pointed it out. He didn't know why exactly he was so upset, he should feel blessed that Mr. Day even noticed his emotional state was low, but somehow that acknowledgement, that act of kindness, triggered a prolonged wave of tears. Now he was even more humiliated than before, blushing madly as he tried to scrub his eyes with the back of his white sleeve. 

 

"Why don't you go to the bathroom and take a few deep breaths. After that I'll take you to the guidance counselor." 

 

"It's ok." Ashton's raspy voice replied, "I'm just having a bad day. I failed a test and my group project was bad and -" he cut off to hiccup, "I don't need a counselor." 

 

"Ashton, there is no shame in talking to a counselor about your emotions." 

 

"I know. I just don't need to. I'm fine, really." 

 

Mr. Day looked skeptical, but he nodded, and wrapped and arm around Ashton. "Will listening to music today relax you?" 

 

"Yes sir." 

 

"Good because that's what I had planned for today. We're going to listen to music and write out some of our favorite Lyrics. For homework you are to write one line of lyrics on your own. Is that alright, or is that too much for you to handle?" 

 

"I can do it." 

 

Mr. Day smiled softly at Ashton, his features brightening Ashton's whole mood. "I know you can. You're singing voice is very excellent in class. You have improved incredibly at playing the drums in class. I'm very proud of you. Ashton." 

 

And fuck. Why did Mr. Day have to say that? Now Ashton was tearing up again because he's not use to this. This is weird. People are never  _nice_  to Ashton. He can't handle people being nice. Insults, sure he can take that. Physical pain, he can take that too. But compliments? Genuine compliments  _hurt_ Ashton. 

 

He felt compelled to wrap his teacher in a giant hug. It hurt that he couldn't hug Mr. Day. The man was a true saint in Ashton's eyes. He's always considerate. Always thinking of his students. Just yesterday he let Tucker spend lunch in his office so they could discuss ways to help his family gain more money. He gave Tucker a job working in the music room after hours just so Tucker could afford to feed his mother and sisters. Mr. Day also brought in candies to school so when it was someone's birthday they could have a treat. 

 

"Thank you Mr. Day for asking." Ashton said, but he really wanted to thank Mr. Day for being a wonderful human being. 

 

"No problem, Ash. Just let me know if you need anything. I don't want to see you upset." He gave Ashton and pat on the back and then led him inside the classroom. 

 

Ashton sat down next to Calum and Michael. He had a smile on his face, but his nose was still red. 

 

"What's wrong?" Michael asked, alarmed. 

 

"You look like you were crying." 

 

"I'm fine. Just tired." It's true. Ashton was fine now. Mr. Day calmed him down quite a bit. Plus he really is exhausted, especially after crying. 

 

The day progressively improved for Ashton. He was siting at the dinner table with Michael, Calum and Luke talking about their upcoming performance at the game this Friday. 

 

"I don't know. I still think it's a risky move. Feldmann could kick my ass out of school." Calum proclaimed. 

 

Michael was occupied with pouring excessive amounts of salt over Luke's french fries to answer. He was laughing quietly to himself when Calum shoved him. "Michael! Answer me dammit." 

 

"Sorry. I just wanted to make sure uggie couldn't eat anything." He laughed, poking Luke's squishy face. 

 

"I hate you." He responded flatly, tossing a fry at Michael and successfully hitting him in the eye. 

 

"Ow! Little brat!" He went to throw a chocolate covered strawberry at Luke, but was stopped by Ashton. 

 

"Leave him alone and answer Calum." 

 

"What was the question?" Michael asked innocently. 

 

"It was a statement." Calum tossed his head back and groaned, "Never mind." 

 

               ______________________

 

It was late Tuesday evening when Ashton and Calum snuck into the girls dormitory. They watched the chemistry tournament  then decided to stick around for a little chat with Jade and her friends. Nia sat on Calum's lap as they gathered around the livingroom floor. 

 

"Kaitlyn get the popcorn." 

 

"I'm going to get a shower." She said, "I have softball practice at 6am tomorrow so I need to go to bed pronto." 

 

"Fine. Be lame." Rena scowled. She turned her attention to another girl in the room, "Amber? Would you be so kind -"

 

"Yeah I'll get you the popcorn as long as it shuts you up." 

 

Rena smiled widely, "I love you, Amber!" 

 

From a distance, Ashton could hear the girl grumble something along the lines of "yeah right. You only love food." 

 

He couldn't help the smile that fell upon his face. Their bickering reminded him of Michael and Luke. 

 

Once Amber returned, Jade shut off the lights and turned on her phone's flashlight. 

 

"Seriously?" Nia snorted, "it's not that real." 

 

"He's never heard the story before. Don't ruin this before I start it." Jade snapped. Her long black hair was up in a high ponytail. She had a think black tank top on and soft white pj bottoms. 

 

"This is the legend of Kelly Marlo and Troy Fisher." She began, shining the flashlight under her eyes. "It happened two years ago in the teacher's lounge -"

 

"Wait a second? Two years ago? That was really recent. Calum would have been a freshman. So would you girls."

 

"Yeah. We were here when it happened. All of us were freshman except for Barbie." Nia explained. 

 

"I wasn't here when it happened." Rena piped in, "I wish I was though." 

 

"Can I continue?" 

 

"Sorry." 

 

Jade brushed off her apology and went back to the story, "so yeah, it happened two years ago." 

 

"It's a true story?" Ashton questioned. 

 

"Yes." Jade snapped. 

 

"Well sort of. What happened is real. The ghost tale legend part might not be." Amber said, leaning on her pink polka-dot pillow. 

 

Ashton nodded and looked back at Jade signaling for the impatient girl to continue. 

 

"Like I was saying, two years ago, in the teachers lounge, a girl by the name of Kelly Marlo was going to tell her teacher about the unholy things happening in the girls locker room. Now two years ago, boys were allowed to come over to the girls school. They even had classes here. Both buildings were bonded together and teachers from both schools worked in both buildings. It was just like a bigger campus. Everyone went everywhere, that is, until Kelly Marlo was murdered." 

 

The girls in the room held on to one another's hands in remembrance of a beautiful, spirited girl with a bright future ahead of her. Jade took a deep breath and continued. 

 

"Kelly found out about the sexual games that were played in the girls locker room. Multiple boys would be brought over at a time and forced to have sex with the girls. The girls were also being forced. Who was the mastermind behind this sick twisted plan? Well, everyone suspects it to be Troy Fisher. He was the star jock of the school, but in his spare time, he had a contract with a porn company. Some say he was brainwashed by this company and blackmailed to do the things he did. Others say he was the devil himself brought to a school of rejects and punishing them for their failures in life. Whatever the reason, he was a dark kid, who grew paranoid about being caught -" 

 

"I mean I would be too if I had some secret sex room." Rena stated, biting into another popcorn coronal. 

 

"So when Kelly Marlo was blackmailed to go into the room. She refused and threatened to tell. Troy was terrified. He made good on his promise and set out to destroy her.  She was harassed and stocked, but that didn't stop her. The next day she went into the teachers lounge to tell her teacher what was going on, but she never came out. The next thing you know, a teacher is freaking out screaming and calling the ambulance. The murder weapon, a knife, was left at the crime scene. It had Troy's fingerprints all over it. He went to jail, she had a funeral, people were traumatized bla, bla, bla."

 

"Jade! That's horrible." Amber criticized. 

 

"Have some respect!" Nia added. 

 

"Look I'm just trying to get to the juicy stuff. So basically the secret sex room was discovered and those kids got help and everyone lived happily ever after. Except they didn't because legend has it that Kelly Marlo haunts the girls school looking to expose any bad behavior. They say she is unsatisfied with how things turned out and she is still looking for the real killer. A boy who's still hiding out somewhere in our building. She's trying to expose him. So whenever you see a K on the wall you know she has been there."  

 

"I'm officially creeped out again!" Rena cried, squeezing her ears shut.

 

"Then why did you listen to the story again?" Nia asked, smacking her sister upside the head. 

 

"It's interesting." Rena said, and I wasn't here to experience it." 

 

Ashton leaned back on his blanket and said, "I'm a little confused. You said something about a K on the wall?" 

 

"Yeah. Every year a mysterious K shows up on the wall." Amber explained, "we think it's the teachers doing it to remind us girls why we are not suppose to let boys come over here." 

 

"Which we're doing right now." Nia added. 

 

"Yeah. Maybe we'll get a K on our door tonight." 

 

"Doubtful, because none of the teacher know about this." 

 

"True. It's a really fake legend. No one has ever actually seen her ghost. It's just something people say." Amber explained. 

 

"If you don't believe, it might get you next." Jade said, gripping her blanket tightly. 

 

"Shut up." Amber yelled. 

 

"That's ashamed that any of that actually happened." Ashton said. He had spent a long time thinking the story over. A lot of things didn't make complete sense. "Why exactly do people think Troy fisher isn't the killer?" 

 

"Oddly enough, Troy admitted to doing it. He also left the weapon in plain sight with his fingerprints on it. To some people this seemed like a set up. You know, it was too easy. I think he just had a guilty conscience." 

 

Calum stood up from where he was sitting. "I don't know about you Ash, but I'm ready to leave." 

 

"Yeah we should go." 

 

"Careful, don't let Kelly Marlo get you on the way out." Jade laughed. 

 

It wasn't funny. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark days lie ahead at summer's institutional school.

"Hiding away / on this dark and dreary day. / my numbness won't allow / me to feel right now. / nothing left for me to say / on this dark and dreary day." 

 

What a relatable poem for the current moment. This morning word got out that the government was cutting back school budgets. Principal Feldman was going to lose a lot of money and so was the school. Clubs and sports had to be cut back. Right now the only sport allowed is Soccer - no surprise. Mr. Day is being threatened to lose his job because music is considered the lower elective of the school. 

 

"We can survive without music." The principal had said during the long assembly this morning. As of now, no classes are being cut yet. The art teacher will be the first to go if anything should happen. At least, Feldman made that clear. 

 

"Nice job Kyle. Good poem." Mr. Frey said clapping his hands together in a slow monotone pace. 

 

"Thank you sir." 

 

Mr. Frey was more quiet than usual today. He called the next student up. It was a boy named Nick, who Ashton has seen around. He's always smiling and talking about silly things. But he's part of the soccer team-then again- so is Calum, so who is Ashton to judge.

 

"This is a poem I wrote about my sister. She passed away a few years ago." He took a deep breath then unfolded a piece of paper. "She's trapped inside a small dark room. / where none can hear her shout. / she's screaming and she's crying. / she's never getting out. / sins crawling n her skull / her nails screeching down the wall / she's sure she's going mad. / it's like a never ending fall. / the banging on the wall / blood dripping down her head / it shouldn't be much longer / until she's finally dead." 

 

The class didn't know whether or not to clap or stay silent. It was a mix of quiet claps and awkward shuffling around. Mr. Frey stood up and said, "that was truly well written. I can already say you have an A." 

 

Nick smiled crookedly. "I have an A now, but I don't have a sister. It doesn't seem worth it." 

 

"Poems can cover almost any topic, any emotion, but the poems that most people find particularly touching are those that help us to better understand our innermost feelings/outlooks–and the feelings of others. It may not seem worth it to get an A, but it should be worth it to write about how you are feeling. It may help others who are going through the same thing. That's the beauty of sharing thoughts and feelings." 

 

"If that's true sir, then why are they cutting the music program? Isn't Music the same as poetry?" 

 

"Yes, it is." Mr. Frey sighed, "and they're making a big mistake." 

 

The room grew quiet. It was suppose to be this way. Every student was suppose to get a chance to sing at the talent show. They should all have the chance to go to a college and major in music. As of now, they are still able to do this because the talent show is still on. But for how long? 

 

In math class, Ashton was feverishly taking notes. He really needed to pay attention now if he wants his grades to make a comeback. He caught a glance at Luke who was not-so- slyly texting under the desk. 

 

In french class Ashton had to give a speaking assessment. Afterwards, he had time to get ahead and finish his math homework. 

 

In music class the students sat in three giant circles because it was game day where the students are suppose to sing as many songs they can think of with a certain lyric. For instance, Mr. Day reads a card that says the word: hand. Then all of the students sing songs about the word hand like: "take my hand and we'll make it I swear." 

 

"Good job, Tucker!" 

 

Max raised his hand, then shot up from his seat. "For hands of gold are always cold." He sang and his team cheered, clasping him on the back. 

 

After warming up with a game, Mr. Day told them to move the seats back in a row and to quietly watch the homework videos. This one was a We the Kings song. 

 

Luke and Michael had done check yes Juliet and in the video Luke forgot the words to the second verse. It looked like they had a bunch of fun, but it was unprofessional. 

 

"A very good demonstration of vocals Luke, but please try and remember the lyrics." Mr. Day smiled. 

 

Michael whispered something into Luke's ear and they broke out laughing. 

 

"Boys, quiet down. It's time to watch Mr. Thomson's video." 

 

Tucker did a video where he sang 'from here to Mars.' Throughout the video, Luke and Michael were chatting about their new profile pictures for their bands website. Apparently, Luke and Michael came up with a band name when Luke was in Math class. At least now Ashton knew who Luke was texting all period long. 

 

"Guys, shh." Calum said giving Michael a nudge and pointing to Mr. Day who was glaring in their direction. It was weird to see Mr. Day angry. 

 

Luke and Michael still didn't seem to get the message because they broke into laughter again at the picture they were planning on using for the website. 

 

"Okay, what song should we sing?" Michael asked. 

 

"I don't know. We wrote so many great ones it's gonna be hard to pick." Luke whispered back. 

 

"I think we need to do one to like produce excitement in the students. Ever since the budget news things have gotten dreary." 

 

"True. Maybe we can sing -" 

 

"Excuse me," Luke and Michael looked up at Mr. Day who was standing in front of them. "I'm not going to ask you again. I need you to be quiet during class. You are interrupting  my lesson." 

 

"Sorry Mr. Day." They both said sadly. 

 

The man sighed, "it's alright. I'm sorry too. I've just been on edge today. But I'll try to lighten up." 

 

They nodded and Mr. Day went back to the front of class to discuss Tucker's performance. 

 

"Hey uggie, how are we going to get people to pay for this?" 

 

"Pay?" 

 

"Yeah we need to find a way to pay for the formal so we're gonna say our performance is for aids and then they'll pay." 

 

"Alright okay. How about we not do that and instead, we work for one of the teachers to get us money." 

 

"What teacher's gonna pay us?" 

 

"Maybe Mr. Frey. He's been looking for people to write in the school paper." 

 

Michael burped loudly near Luke's ear causing the younger boy to slap him harshly across the chest. 

 

"Unnecessary." He said. He turned around to see all eyes on him. He immediately blushed red. 

 

Mr. Day crossed his arms over his chest. "I was talking about vocal range -"

 

Michael happened to shout loudly that he figured out the perfect song to play at that exact moment. Luke cringed as he saw Mr. Day's red face. 

 

"That's it." He whispered, and he walked to the back closet. "I gave you two plenty of chances." He picked up a long wooden cane from the closet and walked over to the boys. 

 

Luke slouched back as far as he could in his chair, heart hammering in his chest. Michael paled. 

 

"I'm sorry." He said, "it's my fault. Luke wasn't even doing anything." 

 

Ashton couldn't believe his favorite teacher was about to hit his two friends. He felt the urge to wrap Luke and Michael in a hug and keep them away from the man. 

 

Mr. Day shook his head. "Hold out your hands." He said to both of them. 

 

Luke and Michael hesitated, but they did as they were told. Slowly lifting their left hands out. Mr. Day took ahold of Michael's hand with his own and then he brought the cane down twice. Michael winced and quickly pulled his hand away after his punishment.

 

He looked over his shoulder to see brandon smirking in his seat. He waved at Michael mockingly. Michael scrunched his nose and glared. He turned his attention to Luke, when he heard the cane strike his tender hand. 

 

Mr. Day's face looked like someone just tore his heart out and stepped on it. He awkwardly stood in place as Luke's electric blue eyes filled up with tears. 

 

The man stumbled backwards and placed the cane back where it belong -in a cabinet- and he tried to go back to teaching. 

 

"This next video is by Brandon." 

 

The class watched Brandon's very good music video with special effects and everything. 

 

"Are you okay?" Ashton whispered gently. 

 

Luke nodded and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "I'm fine." He whispered. 

 

"How about you?" Ashton put his hand on Michael's knee. 

 

"I'm fine. Let's just be quiet. I don't want another round." 

 

             ________________________

It was during Lunch break that Luke and Michael went to nurse rose to get bandages on their hands. Ashton was in line with Luke to get a hamburger. Julie saw his hand and gave Luke an extra plate of cookies. 

 

"Thanks Julie, I appreciate this. I love your cookies." Luke whispered and Julie blew Luke a kiss. "You know I love baking for you sweet pea. Enjoy them." The lunch lady gave Ashton a generous heap of mashed potatoes. 

 

"Have a good rest of your day, boys." 

 

"Thanks Julie." They chorused. 

 

"Michael! Look how many cookies I just got." Luke said as he sat next to Michael at the back table. Ashton frowned, wondering why Michael was sitting at his old lonely table. 

 

"Hey Michael, don't you want to sit with Calum at the round tables?" 

 

He shook his head. 

 

"Why not?" Luke asked, "it's nice up there." 

 

"Luke." Michael began, "you can go up there. I want to be alone right now." 

 

"No way. I want to be with you." 

 

"No! Get away." 

 

Luke's mouth opened and closed a few times, before slowly speaking, "oh." He turned sadly and took his tray and over to Calum. 

 

"Michael!" Ashton scolded, "don't say shit like that to him. It's bad enough you get the kid caned in class. But now your just being a dick." 

 

"Exactly! Cause I got him caned. It's my fault. I knew if Luke spent time around me I would end up hurting him somehow." 

 

"Oh come on, Michael, you can't blame yourself entirely for that. And you know what happened in the past is over. Luke is not that other boy." 

 

"But he is. He's exactly like my old friend." Michael stood up, "I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore. I can't be in a band with him." 

 

"Michael calm the fuck down." Ashton scolded boldly. 

 

"Excuse me?" 

 

"You heard me. I said calm down and think about what you're saying." Ashton pushed Michael onto the blue cafeteria chair then sat down next to him. "Do you really want to throw away your dream of making a difference in the school? Of having a voice. What about telling people it's okay to not be okay? Do you really want to throw that opportunity away because you're afraid of hurting Luke?" 

 

Michael gulped, his Adam's apple wiggling. "Honestly Ashton, I would." He looked up at Ashton with a great pain on his face, "I can't hurt someone again. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I got Luke -or anyone else for that matter - killed. And you have to admit, this idea I have, it's fucking dangerous." 

 

"It is." Ashton agreed with a smile, "but so are the best ideas. Those are the kinds that make history." 

 

"I don't want to hurt anyone." 

 

"And you won't. It's Luke's decision to do this. He won't blame you. He doesn't blame you right now. In fact, all he wants to do is be around you, and do you know why, Michael?" 

 

The pale boy shook his head. 

 

"Because you're inspiring! You give people like Luke hope that things can get better. Just hanging out with you makes Luke's life better." 

 

"Now you're just giving me an ego." 

 

"You need to know how important you are to the band. We need you Michael, and you need us. So what d'ya say we pick up our cheeseburgers, grab some soda and sit with Calum and Luke?" 

 

Michael shook his head with a laugh, "I'd say you have a real future as a salesman." 

 

"Thanks bro." 


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do do do d-do do do do do do

"There are at least one hundred people here." Luke whined into Ashton's ear. They were standing in the bleachers, watching the football game. Unfortunately for them, it was a Friday night and the government official, Mr. Valdez and his two partners, Mrs. Duncan and Mr. Hunter, were sitting in the audience waiting to give a statement on the school budget tonight. 

Luke Michael and Ashton were in the lower stands, waiting to make their big move. To say they were nervous would be an understatement. 

"Did we pick the right band name? What if people think it's weird?" 

"Trust me Lu, it's better than the name bromance." Michael said, patting Luke on his beanie. He looked Luke's outfit over and smiled. "You look good kid. Like a rebellious teenage. But I suggest taking the beanie off before going out their. It makes you look too soft." 

Luke angrily squinted his eyes at Michael but he took the hat off his head. 

"Shall I wear a SnapBack? Would that make me look 'cool'" 

"As a matter of fact, it would." Michael smiled, opening his backpack up and giving Luke one of his snapback hats. 

"I was kidding." 

"Shouldn't joke with me." Michael laughed, putting it over Luke's head. 

"What if this isn't the time to play this song? What if people get pissed." 

"That's the point Ashton. You don't get a message across without people getting mad. Are the girls all set?" 

"Yeah, I texted Nia this morning. She said she got our back." Ashton replied. 

"I guess it helps to have a popular girl like Nia as your best friend." 

"I know. And it helps that she can convince Barbie to get some of her friend involved." 

"We're literally gonna be in so much trouble. I'm scared." Luke admitted. 

"Don't worry uggie. Everything's gonna work out alright. We'll defend each other. No one will let anyone take full blame." Michael assured his younger friend. 

Running past them in his baggy shorts, Calum waved as he dribbled the soccer ball down the field. 

"There's only ten minutes left in the game." Ashton stated. 

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Luke added. 

"This is it." Michael smiled widely, adrenaline kicking through his veins. "We can do this, you guys." 

"Fuck I feel sick." Luke said again, this time clutching his stomach. 

"Oh don't throw up Luke, it's gonna be fine." 

"I don't think I can do it." 

"Lucas." Michael said sternly, "don't wimp out on me now. We've come too far. I need your damn voice for the chorus. Come on Luke, you are super talented and you deserve to be noticed." 

"I guess -"

"No, believe. You have to believe in yourself." 

"Okay. I can do this." 

"Damn right you can! Five minutes left! Let's go go go!" 

The crowd was cheering loudly, students were dancing on the stands getting ready for a winning game. Brandon steals the ball from the other teams and takes it down the field. 

"Yeah let's go." Someone cried from behind Ashton. 

Nick was wide open, ready for a pass to come to him. Unfortunately, Brandon wanted to be a show off so he tried to get the goal by himself. The ball ended up bouncing off the goal tenders knee and going back into the field just as the buzzer rang. 

"Game over." Ashton whispered. 

"Game just starting." Michael said. 

The principal had come on the field, with a microphone and camera to his face he said, "in a short moment we will be hearing about our school budget." 

A small stage was being rolled up behind Mr. Feldmann and the three government officials took the stage. All three of them sat while Feldmann explained how important it is to listen to them talk about money. As the government officials were sitting on stage, a group of student workers were setting up the instruments behind them. Mr. Feldmann knew there was going to be a performance; he just thought it was going to be a classical or an appropriate teaching performance. Boy was he wrong. 

The drum set was ready to go, and so were the microphones. Michael and Luke walked to the side of the stage and grabbed their guitars. 

"You ready, kid?" 

Luke shook his head, gulping. He peered out into the sea of people. The whole school was practically here. All that was missing was the girls school, but Rena and Nia had a plan. 

They were going to hook the mic to the loud speaker of their school. Then all the girls were going to flood the football field. 

Luke squeezed his eyes shut in fear. "Michael I don't think I can do this." His voice cracked slightly. Michael grabbed him by the shoulders and Luke flinched. Searching Luke's eyes, Michael held him firmly and said, "Listen to me, Luke. You can do this. I know you can. I've seen you do it everyday in rehearsal." 

"But the people -"

"Ignore them. Focus on me, Ashton and Calum. We're the only people you need to think about right now. We are your friends and we won't judge you." 

"I know."

"Good." Michael let go of Luke's shoulders and patted the boy on the back. "To tell you the truth, I'm a bit terrified myself." Michael whispered right before Mr. Feldmann announced the first speakers name. "Please give a warm welcome to Mr. Valdez." 

Half the student body sleepily clapped. It was Friday night, no one was interested in whatever he had to say. 

"Hello students of a correctional boarding school. You may have heard some rumors going around about your school's budget but I am here tonight to clear things up." 

He pulled out a sheet of paper from his dress coat pocket then carefully unfolded it. He cleared his throat and read: "The Summer's institutional boarding school is designed to provide extra attention to students who suffer from trauma. But is this school worth all the extra taxpayer dollars? After all, this school was designed as a special school for troubled boys. The common man is frustrated with paying extensive taxes for a group of bad children to have wonderful opportunities handed to them on a daily basis."

"Wonderful opportunities? Are you bloody mad?" A boy from the stands shouted, "we have metal bars over our window seals!" 

"Yeah and barbed wire on the fences." Another boy yelled. 

Max stood up from his place in the bleachers, "we're treated like fucking animals! So don't give us this bull shit about wonderful opportunities!"

"How disgraceful!" Mr. Valdez exclaimed, "you lot should be grateful for everything you have. You've been given a second chance and this is what you do? You complain?"

"When there's barbed wire around my window, yeah I complain." 

"With little public funding, this school has been relying on more private funds for the arts, but that has just about run out. Your music and art programs just aren't raising enough money over the years due to lack of talent and perhaps lack of moral discipline. We will be taking a close look at the department’s budget and identifying opportunities for reductions that will have the least impact on student education services,” Valdez said, "however, should we find it necessary, we will be cutting the art and music programs first unless you can provide the proper amount of fundraising I'm afraid we will have to fire those teachers."

"Why don't you cut the sports?" Someone shouted as Mr. Valdez and his assistants walked off stage. 

Mr. Feldmann shook the man's hand then walked back on stage. "Alright students, there you have it. Now I have two announcements: first of all, we will be having a family visit next Friday so make sure you keep getting good grades because Your house leaders will be speaking with your parents. And lastly, we are going to listen to a song from a group of kids in our music class. Hopefully they will prove this school still has talent and our music class won't have to be cut." 

Mr. Feldmann began to gesture the boys on stage and the audience clapped. Ashton felt numb walking the two small stairs. He vaguely remembers looking at anything other than his drum kit. Once he sat down on his drum set, he pulled out a red piece of cloth from his white dress shirt pocket and he wrapped it around his head. His curly brown hair stuck up out the sides of his bandana. Luke and Calum stood to the side. Luke was in ripped up black skinny jeans and a red checkered shirt. Michael had on his school uniform and Calum had on his scoccer uniform but Calum threw on a black cap. He twisted it backwards and gave Michael a nod. Luke was staring out into the crowd of people with a glaze in his eyes. Michael nodded back to Calum and the tan boy whipped out his cell phone and pressed the call button on Nia's contact. 

Calum leaned into his microphone and started to speak but the whole sound system rang out in an annoyingly high pitch sound that caused everyone to cover their ears and cringe. Clasping his hand over the mic, Calum apologized. 

"Sorry about that. Um, hi, we're gonna sing a song about girls. This was inspired by the girls in the Summers institutional school next door. So yeah, good girls." 

Michael grabbed a blow horn and shouted "do dodo do do dododo" 

Then the guitars began along with Calum's bass. Ashton came in on the drums next, with a powerful bang. 

"She's a good girl. She's daddy's favorite. He saved for Harvard. He knows she'll make it." The guitar and drums blared. 

"She's good at school, she's never truant

She can speak French, I think she's fluent." 

The crowd of teen boys howled at Michael's comment, some even went as far as to stand up on the bleachers screaming. Professor Day who was in the first row to the far left of the bleachers -where all the teachers sat - looked at the boys with the widest smile on his face. Ashton felt proud to make him proud - even if the man did punish his friends recently, Ashton knew Mr. Day was only stressed about losing his job. Besides, Luke and Michael did deserve to be punished. 

It was Calum's turn to sing. He leaned into the mic with style and continued the song, "'Cause every night she studies hard in her room. (At least that's what her parents assume) But she sneaks out the window to meet with her boyfriend. Here's what she told me the time that I caught 'em..." 

This was it, the powerful chorus they've been waiting for. There was no turning back now. Not even when they noticed the look of disgust on the government officials face. Luke took a breath and shouted, along with the rest, "She said to me, forget what you thought 'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught! So just turn around and forget what you saw. 'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught." 

Michael ripped off his long white sleeves and thew them into the bleachers. 

"Woahhhh-ohhhh. Good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught." 

Luke was smiling the way he was when they recorded together in the music room. Calum was busy jumping around and Ashton was smashing the drums. Then there was Michael, who as many people would think, lost his mind. He jumped off stage and ran to his backpack to grab a bottle of spray paint. 

"Woahhhh-ohhh. Good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught!" 

 

"She's a good girl" Calum explained, rolling his eyes as he sang, "a Straight A student.   
She's really into all that self-improvement." 

 

Michael re-entered the stage with the bottle of red spray paint. 

"I swear she lives in that library  
But if you ask her she'll say," 

  
"That's where you'll find me!" Michael finished. He shook the bottle of paint and began to spray a giant 'X' over Ashton's drum kit. 

 

"But if you look then you won't find her there  
She may be clever but she just acts too square." Luke said singing. "'Cause in the back of the room, where nobody looks, She'll be with her boyfriend.. she's not reading books." 

 

Out in the distance, near the girls school, a large group of people, started coming towards the boys. It took people a few minutes to realize that the heard of people were girls from the school running as fast as they could towards the bleachers." 

 

Feldmann gasped at the sight. And a few of the teacher's eyes nearly popped out of their heads. The goverment official was screaming at the top of his lungs but no one could hear over the blazing loud music. 

 

"She said to me, forget what you thought  
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught.   
So just turn around and forget what you saw  
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught." They sang out to the crowd of girls who were running to the spot directly below them. 

 

The girls reached their hands up and jumped up and down just like they were at a real concert. 

 

Everything felt so surreal. Michael couldn't believe this was happening: his dreams were coming true. He faintly heard Mr. Valdez scream, "shut that down. " But the way this was going, Michael knew it was not ending. He wouldn't let it end. 

 

"Do do do d-do do do do do do." He screamed, then he jumped up and down. 

 

Luke grabbed a stack of paper off of the stage. This was the last part of their crazy insane plan they had. He began tossing them into the crowd while singing, "Good girls are bad girls and good girls are bad girls!"

 

"Do do do d-do do do do do do. Good girls are bad girls and good girls are bad girls!"

 

The papers with a bright letter 'X' flew into the audience along with the words rebellion and the following words Ashton is about to say. 

 

"She's a good girl,hasn't been caught...

She's a good girl, alright summer's institution are you ready to start a rebellion?" 

 

The audience screamed in agreement. 

 

Ashton continued his speech, "We should be allowed to mix the guys and girls in our school. There is nothing wrong with having classes with mixed sexes. In real life, we are going to have to deal with both boys and girls. We might as well learn to deal with it now while we're still young. Besides, we deserve the chance to fall in love! We should be allowed to have music and art class! We should not be punished because we made mistakes in our past. We are not damaged goods. Those mistakes can make us better people! Most of all we deserve this second chance!" 

The girls began screaming again this time more loudly than the last. A bunch of boys from the back ran to the front to dance with the girls. At this point the teachers and the principals were gathering around the group of students, trying to break up the crowd. Security rushed outside and started to help break up the crowd as well. 

 

"She said to me, forget what you thought  
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught  
So just turn around and forget what you saw  
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught"

Luke took it away at the end, "She said to me, forget what you thought  
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught  
So just turn around and forget what you saw  
'Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught. 

Woahhhh-ohhhh  
Good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught  
Woahhhh-ohhhh  
Good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught  
Woahhhh-ohhhh  
Woahhhh-ohhhh

Good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught." 

 

A few security guards finally made their way past the crowd and onto the stage. The girls and boys were trying to hold the men back, grabbing their ankles and keeping them back. Nevertheless, two security guards made it on stage.

 

Luke had just enough time to scream, "Were 5 seconds of summer! Check us out on YouTube! More songs to come. Thank you!" Before he was attacked to the ground by a big guard. 

 

Ashton leaped up from his drum kit and stared down at Luke who was lying on the ground. 

 

"Are you ok?" He yelled. Another man was carrying Michael off stage and police sirens could be heard from the front of the building. 

 

The crowd screamed as tear gas flooded the scene. The police threw another tear gas bottle at the kids and picked them up and took them inside. But Ashton, Luke, Michael and Calum were taken to the back of a police car.

 

Oh shit.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> keep the ones that heard you when you never said a word.

The police car drove to the back of the school, behind Coral Hall, and parked in front of an old shed-like house. Ashton was certain that they were going to be tied up and tortured in there. He was pleasantly surprised to find multiple jail cells lining the walls instead of some 15th century medieval torturing device. 

 

Three police officers escorted each of the boys into the large jail cell in the center of the row. They watched as the cell was locked, before sitting on the bed in the back.

 

"What even is this place?" Ashton asked, observing the blue bars on a cell across from him and a large grey hallway that leads far into the distance. The floor was grey tile and white walls. Someone had carved an array of nasty slang words on the walls behind Ashton. 

 

"It's the school's isolation room." Michael explained. Ashton vaguely recalled Mrs. Lash telling him about this type of punishment on his first day of school. 

 

"So this is isolation? It doesn't seem so bad?" 

 

"It's not that bad, but this isn't exactly it." Michael said, "You see, down that hall there are more rooms like this one, except you are completely alone, and there are no bars, just grey cement walls. It gets really lonely and boring really fucking fast. It kinda makes a person crazy after a while." Michael bit his lip, "I would know. I've been in here a thousand and times." 

 

"Bro, I'm so sorry." Calum said, shivering slightly. He wrapped his arms around his chest and glanced down at Luke who was surprisingly holding it together pretty well. 

 

"That was the best performance ever." Michael said after a few minutes of silence. He expected to be dignified with a response, but Ashton's eyes glanced to the clock on the wall, "how long do you think they'll keep us in here?" 

 

"Hopefully not too long." Calum said, "I have history homework I have to do. Plus, I want to see Nia sometime this weekend." 

 

"What did you think of our performance?" Michael tried again this time earning a few stares. 

 

"It was fun." Ashton admitted sheepishly. He shouldn't enjoy breaking the rules this much. 

 

"To be completely honest, I've never felt more of a thrill in my life then I did fifteen minutes ago." Calum replied, "but look at us now. We're in a jail cell. Was it really worth it?" 

 

With the way Michael's face contorted painfully, you would have thought he got shot. His hurt eyes resembled a small kitty who isn't allowed to go outside and pay. 

 

"Was it worth it?" Michael repeated, "well, I certainly think so. I mean, look what we just accomplished. People in the audience loved us. The school needs something like this during such a dark time." 

 

"All I'm saying is I over heard Feldmann say something about making an example out of us. That doesn't sound good." Calum said. 

 

"I told you it wasn't going to be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is. But if we are willing to stick this out, then I promise things will work out in the end." 

 

Calum signed, and leaned his head against the blue bars, "I just hope we don't get kicked out. I need this school." 

 

Principal John Feldmann walked into the police office on campus late that night. He decided to lecture his four rebellious students throughly. 

 

"What you have done tonight is a complete outrage." He began, smacking the bars on the cell with a baseball bat. The loud sudden noise echoed in the small room. Ashton and Calum cringed, but Luke had flinched so violently it looked like someone just slapped him with the bat. 

 

"Whoa," Michael said softly, "what's wrong Luke, you just jumped fifty feet." Michael reached his hand out to fix a fallen strand of hair on Luke's head. 

 

The younger boy, who held it together so well until this point, broke into a loud scream of "Don't touch me!" He violently smacked Michael's hand away, all the while curling in on himself and hugging his legs to his chest. 

 

Michael stared in horror at Luke's reaction. Maintaining eye-contact, Luke and Michael refused to look away from one another while Feldmann confined to lecture. 

 

"In all my years of teaching, I have never had a group of students so disrespectful in my entire career. You could have caused a riot! You're lucky we have police on this highly restricted institution or else people could have gotten seriously injured. I don't know what you were thinking, but whatever the reason, you will have to serve some type of punishment." 

 

Ashton stood up, "you haven't thought of one yet?" 

 

"No, not yet. I'm working on it." Feldmann responded, and Calum interjected, "couldn't you hurry up, I have a lot of homework and sports to do this weekend." 

 

He explained with a glare, "Mr. Day is going to come out here, in fact, he should be on his way over right now to discuss your punishment with me. He is after all, the head of your house, plus he is part of the music department. I figured I will let him deal with you." 

 

"But Mr. Day will be proud of us." Michael said, finally releasing eye contact with Luke. He turned back to the boy and reached his hand out to move Luke's hair out of his face once again. This time he got the same reaction if not worse. Luke squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his back against the wall, flinching. 

 

"Oh uggie," Michael whispered softly, "what happen to you?" He managed to remove the hair out of Luke's eyes despite the soft whines of protests he got. 

 

"Mr. Day, was not proud of you. He may have been impressed with your music. And he may be happy that you potentially saved his job, but he will not be proud." 

 

"Sir, you know he is." Ashton stated, "so why are you letting him discipline us." 

 

Feldmann sighed, putting his hands on his hips, "I may not have minded your performance that much myself." 

 

Their faces lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really? Aw Mr. Feldmann you softy." 

 

"Just sit here and wait for Mr. Day." The principal left the police station by saying something to the officers then walking out with style. 

 

"He's a weird man, isn't he?" 

 

"I told you, Feldy's cool." Calum said with a smile. "He just lost his touch for a few weeks." 

 

"And our music brought him back!" Michael yelled excessively loud, causing his friends to groan.

 

"Inside voices, Michael." Ashton scolded. 

 

"Luke seems to think so too. Look he's covering his ears." Calum said sitting next to him. 

 

"Yeah, what's wrong with him anyway." 

 

"Nothing." Calum said, "he's fine." 

 

"He's flinching." Michael said, "look." He raised his hand above Luke's head again and Luke flinched back. 

 

"Would you stop fucking doing that!" Luke shouted, face heating up now that everyone was looking at him. 

 

There was a soft opening of the door, and Mr. Day walked inside smiling softly at them. "Hi guys," he said taking off his scarf and gloves, the weather outside must have dropped dramatically again. It's suppose to be warming up, but there's still winter weather at night time. 

 

Mr. Day spoke to the officers for a few minutes getting them to laugh. The officers opened the cell and Mr. Day motioned for the boys to follow him. 

 

"That's buddy, I'll see you around." Mr. Day said, causing the other police officers to laugh. 

 

"Are you friends with them?" Ashton asked as they walked outside in the freezing cold night. Their breath could be seen in small puffs of air. 

 

"Yeah, you know it's always a good idea to make friends with everyone. But of course, you shouldn't strain yourself to be friends with those who dislike you. Nevertheless, you will find a helping hand everywhere you turn if you make friends." 

 

He led the freezing boys into Coral Hall, and into the gymnasium. 

 

"I will let you go to your dorms in a minute, I promise. I'm sure you're sick of people talking to your tonight, but I am suppose to talk to you. Basically, I want to say I'm very disappointed in myself. " 

 

Ashton had to clean out his ears to make sure he heard correctly. "Your disappointed in yourself?" 

 

"Yeah." 

 

"Why?" Michael laughed, "we're the ones who started a riot." 

 

"And I'm proud of you for that." Mr. Day said, "you stood up for what you believed in and you proved that this school can benefit from the music program. You practically saved my job, and I wanted to say I'm sorry for how I treated you in class the other day. I did not take a stand against the school's discipline and instead I conformed with it." 

 

"But Luke and Michael were being disrespectful." Ashton answered. Michael and Luke gaped their mouths open at him. "Oh It's fine, Ash." 

 

Ashton went to flick them off. He turned to find Mr. Day's eyes boring into him, "it's true they deserved it, but I didn't have to do it." 

 

"You don't usually do that." Luke mumbled, rubbing subconsciously at his hand." 

 

"I know." He said sympathetically, "and I'm sorry, Luke." 

 

"It's 'k." He muttered staring at his feet a blush creeping up his neck. 

 

"I'm not going to do it again. In fact, I plan on bringing the subject up and a teacher inservice. Hopefully some of the other teachers will agree with me. Just because this is a correctional reform school doesn't mean we need to use barbaric punishments." 

 

"Speaking of that negative topic. What are you going to make us do for starting a riot."

 

Mr. Day signed, "I think cleaning the music room would be a start." He winked at the boys, "it will give you plenty of time to pick up some new instruments." He then looked at the ground, "Mr. Feldmann wants you to be disciplined in front of the whole school next Friday. To set an example. I can't exactly stop that unfortunately. The best I can do is convince him in the meeting tomorrow that it's unnecessary. As for now I suggest you stay on your best behavior. There's no need for anymore riots. You made your point."

 

They scowled at the news. It wasn't exactly what they wanted to hear. 

 

"Now get back to your dorms." 

 

They exited the gym one by one. 

 


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashton meets the girls again. They Play a game of truth or dare.

"ARggghh!" Michael randomly screamed.

"What's wrong?" Asked Ashton, who was currently in his dorm room doing homework that he probably wouldn't finish.

"Guys let's go out and do something! We've been here all day and haven't done a thing. You've been doing homework since we got here, Calum's just been sleeping on the bed and there's no more fun video games for me to play anymore!"

"Just keep playing assassins creed idiot. Besides I need to finish this homework because some brat wouldn't let me finish it yesterday." Ashton was staring directly at the back of Luke's head. He had a pair of headphones on as he stared out the morning window. Ashton has learned through observation that this is a typical routine for Luke. 

"I don't want to keep playing that game!" Michael complained, "What's so fun about it anyways?! All you do is die respawn and die again and it just continues endlessly!"

Ashton turned and glared at Michael. 

"That's you! Don't lump me in to the same category as you, you shitty casual."

Having said his part Ashton decided to get back to homework. 

Not knowing what to do Michael directed his attention towards Calum

"What do you think Cal?"

"Eh well although dying is a big part of the game. You won't be able to get anywhere if you just quit so you should just keep trying." 

"Not that! I mean about going out!"

Calum gave it some thought although he did have to do his homework as well, he'd still end up taking extra lessons so it didn't really matter whether or not he went out to have some fun.

"I'm okay with it." Calum shrugged. 

"Really come on than let's go! We can leave Mr. Einstein all alone." 

Luke got up and Calum went to his closet to get some different clothes. During this time Ashton got up from the table and was waiting for his friends at the door. It shouldn't have surprised Ashton that Luke was following without even knowing where they were going because he still had his headphones in, but ashton still got surprised. 

Michael stepped back upon seeing Ashton waiting by the door. A sly smirk crept on his face. "I thought you said-"

"Shut up Michael." 

With that the four went out the door. Ashton managed to gently coax Luke's headphones off his head without startling him. It wasn't easy. Ashton had to stand directly in front of him and very slowly raise his hand up and take the beads out of Luke's square- like ears. 

"Hey, Luke, we're just walking around the school to get some air." 

"Oh okay." Luke said, shoving the headphones right back in his ears. 

"Hey Michael,  where should we go?" It was already around five o clock and it was cold outside it being early February and all.

_Growl~~_

They looked back and saw Ashton acting as if nothing had happened.

"Actually I'm feeling kinda hungry how about you, Calum?" Michael asked. 

"Yeah man I know this place with some damn good hot turkey sandwiches, lets go."

"Lead the way."

The girl's building came into eye sight as Calum lead them directly to the back door. 

"Nia's on her way down." 

Ashton rolled his eyes dramatically, putting a hand on his hip. "Seriously? The girls school? Haven't we caused them enough grief?"

"Oh they're fine. They loved the small rebellion as much as we did. The teachers were relatively chill about it too. They just have strict bans about going outside." 

"So how the hell are we suppose to get inside if they can't get outside!" Ashton shouted. 

"Shhh." Calum hushed, "very carefully." 

 

They waited for what seemed like forever before they heard a click of the door latch being opened. The large stone door opened and Nia's bright glittery face popped out from behind it. "Hi!" She exclaimed happily. "Welcome to me casa." 

 

"Hey baby." Calum greeted giving her an affectionate kiss. Ashton and Michael twisted their faces in disgust. Nia rolled her eyes at them and slapped their shoulders. 

 

"Be careful. There are several female police guards all over this place."  

 

Nia was right about the guards, there were also cameras in several places around the school. 

"I can't believe they increased security this much just because of us." Michael whispered. He followed Nia closely because she knew how to get them to her dorm room without getting caught. 

"I know. It's ridiculous." She said as she opened her dorm door. 

"Nia?" A girl's voice called from behind the door. "Mrs. Karen is here." 

She slammed the half open door shut, and muttered a few curse words under her breath. 

"Shit. You guys need to hide."

"Hide? We're in the middle of the hallway." 

Nia's eyes lit up, "get in the janitors closet!" 

"Oh Nia, gross."

"Just do it, Calum." She shouted, shoving him inside. The other boys quickly jumped inside as well only to have the door closed on their butts. 

It was crammed in the small janitor's closet. The boys were pressing their ears against the door, but they could barely hear anything other than faint muffles of incoherent talking. The tension filled silence was interrupted by Ashton's stomach growling. 

"Wow, someone's hungry." Michael commented. 

"It's dinner time." Ashton defended himself stubbornly. 

"Yeah, I wish Nia would hurry up and get rid of her teacher already so we can eat some fucking food."

When Nia opened the door, the boys came tumbling out, landing with a harsh thud near her feet. 

Calum sheepishly laughed, "h-hi Nia, what's up." 

She shook her curly black hair and gestured for them to get up. "Come on. I don't want to run into another teacher before you're even in the room." 

Once they entered the girl's dorm, Ashton spotted Rena on the couch with a bag of potato chips and a glass of orange crush. 

"Hey guys." She said jumping up, "it's good to see you again. Things have been really tight around here now that the new security guards were hired." 

"We can see that." Calum muttered rubbing the crink in his neck. "How had school been for you?" He asked sitting next to Nia on one of the large sofas. 

"It's been ok. I had a really busy week. It's like, every teacher in the building wants me to fail." 

"Tell me about it." Calum complained, taking a bag of chips for himself. He was busy staring into Nia's brown eyes to pay attention to his friends, but luckily, Nia was watching them. "Please, make yourselves comfortable." She said and Calum turned his attention back to them. 

"Yeah, you guys should sit down. We're going to watch a movie." 

Michael frowned, "well I guess it's better than watching a movie alone." 

Rena sat up with a giant smirk on her face. "We could play a game instead." 

"What kind of a game?" Michael question and Rena continued to smile. 

Calum turned to Nia and asked, "we were wondering if we could eat your hot turkey sandwiches?"

"Sure. I'll text Amber and have her bring them right up." Nia said, pulling out her phone from her back pocket. 

Rena finally decided to answer Michael. "We should play Never have I ever."

It was Calum's turn to smirk. "That sounds fun. Do we have the alcohol." 

"Do you even have to ask that?" Rena said with a laugh. 

Once Amber arrived with the food they made a giant circle on the floor. Everyone was cozied against each other, sitting on pillows and curled up with blankets; everyone except for Michael. 

He was looming over the group, facial features contorted in a deep worrying look. Ashton thought he was the first to notice Michael's hesitation, but Rena called him out on it right away. 

"Why don't you sit next to me." She said with a suggestive smile. 

"Ew, Rena, stop." Her sister said making a face of disgust. She turned to Michael and watched his anxious hands fiddle with the sleeves to his hoodie. 

"We don't have to play this if you don't want to." She said after a minutes hesitation. 

"No." Michael said quickly, "I, just, I think I should go."

"Why?" Rena asked, this time more concerned. "We won't use any of the information learned tonight against you."

"Yeah. That's like, code rules." Amber laughed and then her eyes lit up, "do you not know how to play."

Michael scowled deeper than before, "of course I know how to play. Don't insult me." 

Amber held her hands up in surrender. She shook off the comment and got up to pull out a bag of Cheetos from her cupboard. 

"I just," his face flushed a deep red. 

"What is it?" Rena asked. 

"Yeah Michael, what's wrong?" Luke's strong voice questioned. 

"Nothing." He snapped, face still scarlet red, "it's just," 

He paused. They were all looking at him, expecting some kind of an answer so Michael closed his eyes and yelled the truth, "I can't drink around people, okay?" 

"You can't drink around -"

"That's what I said, isn't it." 

Nia was quick to fix the problem, "no biggie, we can use sparkling grapefruit beverages instead." 

"Do you have that?" 

Rena laughed, "please Michael, don't insult us." She stood up and walked to mini fridge pulling out a bottle of sparkling grapefruit. 

"Do I want to know how you get these things." 

"Probably not." Rena said sassily. She clapped her hands and poured everyone a glass of the grape juice. "It's better this way. I wasn't looking forward to starting my next week off with a hangover." 

"Agreed." The boys said with a laugh. After the whole alcohol situation was resolved, Michael happily took a seat right next to Luke. In fact, he sat on Luke's lap, and snuggled up to him. The two of them fit together like two pairs of shoes. Ashton couldn't help but smile at how happy Luke and Michael made one another.  

Ashton chose to begin to start the game. "Never have I ever kissed a guy." 

Rena, Nia, And Michael all took shots of sparkling water. 

"No?" he asked turning to Amber. She shook her head proudly, "I'm a strong independent woman." 

Rena took no notice to this, she was more interested in the face that Michael had taken a swig. "Really?" she asked him. 

He shrugged his shoulder and smirked, "Drunken party." She rolled her eyes and hit him lightly. 

It was then Amber's turn. She chose to take the easy question, "Never have I ever kissed a girl," All the boys plus Rena took a shot. All the guys laughed.

Michael smirked, "I should have known," he said cheekily.

Rena chuckled and began to sing the popular song, "I kissed a girl and I liked it; the taste of her cherry chap stick. I kissed a girl, just to try it," she began before Nia threw a pillow at her face.

"It's your turn, you goon," Nia laughed loudly.

Rena smiled. "Hmm," she smirked as she looked at every one in the circle, "Never have I ever had a crush on one of my teachers," she said laughing lightly. The entire group groaned. Luke, Michael, Calum, and Nia took a sip. The group laughed loudly shrugging at the glances people were giving them. 

 A few more questions when by and everyone was turning their questions into dares. So the game officially switched to truth or dare when Calum demonstrated how he would give a blow job to another man if he had to. 

"Alright Amber, you're gonna pay for that one." Calum muttered, "truth or dare?"

"Dare." She said boldly.

"Oh, in a hurry now, are we?" Calum laughed.  _What will he make Amber do._ An evil smirk formed on Calum's lips. "I dare you to grab a book, walk up to Mrs. Penny and rip a page right in front of her face," said Calum, his voice barely over a whisper. Amber paled considerably, her eyes widening.

"Well, Amber, are you going to do it? Come on now, give me an answer," grinned Calum triumphantly. Amber narrowed her eyes at him, suddenly wishing that she never mentioned the game at all.

"Hood, incase you didn't know, I'm not suicidal!" She exploded angrily." That woman will beat me down as though her life would depend on it. I refuse, I'm not going to do that." She said finally, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the tan boy. 

"Are you chicken?" asked Michael with a laugh. 

"Would  _you_  do that for a dare, Clifford?" snapped Amber heatedly. Michael thought for a moment.

"Yes, I would," he replied.

Amber snorted in disbelief. "Yeah right."

"I would." 

"Prove it." She challenged. 

"It wasn't my dare." He sassed. 

"Give me a different dare," Amber said. 

"Fine, I dare you to switch pants with Michael." 

Amber grimaced, and Michael's mouth dropped open.

"Hey! It's not my dare! Anyway, there's no way I'll fit into her jeans, they're way too small!" Michael protested. 

"It's all just a bit of fun, even more so if we can see you struggling!" Nia told him enthusiastically.

"But that makes it more of a dare for me than Amber!" Michael moaned. 

Amber unzipped her skinny jeans and Michael tugged off his black slacks. Amber then slid down her jeans and yanked them over her ankles. She blushed a bit when Calum wolf-whistled.

"Oh, shut up," she said to him. 

"Well, Amber, when did you get legs like that?" Rena asked her, staring at them. Nia clicked her fingers infront of her sister's face  to stop her from staring. Amber flushed a deep crimson and handed her jeans to Michael laughing at the prospect of him having to squeeze into them.

It took Amber no effort at all to pull on Michael's slacks, although they were a bit big for her. She plopped herself down again on the sofa beside Luke who jokingly tried to snuggle up to her. She pushed him away, in quite a friendly, but embarrassed way.

Everyone turned their attention to Michael who was struggling immensely. He had managed to get half of them over his legs, but as the material got skinnier, he wobbled in his efforts and fell to the floor. Everyone burst into fits of laughter at his misfortune.

"Alright. Fuck it. I'm sitting in my underwear the rest of the night." 

"Ok, ok, I think it's only fair if Michael goes next because Amber already dared Calum earlier." Nia said. 

Michael nodded his head, "that's more like it.  Ok, let's see here." 

Looking around the room, Michael's eyes landed directly on Ashton's. The curly haired boy quickly tore his gaze away, praying Michael did the same, but unfortunately his name was called. "Ashton, truth or dare?" 

If he picks truth he might have to say something horribly embarrassing and knowing Michael, it would be something about his poop habits. But if he picks dare, he is putting himself at a risk of more humiliation or even pain, but people want him to pick dare because dares are fun. 

"Dare." He whispered. 

Michael grinned mischievously, "I dare you to go to the girl's library and continue doing research for your homework assignment in history class." 

Ashton groaned and the girls laughed. "Fine. But if I get caught and my ass is thrown in isolation, I expect multiple visits from you, Michael Clifford." 

"I can do that." He laughed, "ta-ta, Ashton." 

Ashton found an out-of-the-way corner to aid him in getting to the library. He went in to find a book and bring it back to Michael to prove he did the ridiculous task. The more he wonders the halls alone, the more he regrets choosing the dare. He came around a corner thinking he was near to finding the last book he needed when he stopped in  consternation. The aisle was not vacant as he had hoped, a girl in A white tank top and a high checkered skirt was perusing the shelves near the other end. He continued to move as quietly as he could while looking for his needed book and finally spotted it. Unfortunately, it was rather high up and the girl was still there.

He suppressed a huff of irritation as she fingered a book before moving on to another. Couldn't she just find her book and leave? While he glared at her, he abruptly noticed how pretty she was. She had long blond hair, high cheekbones and a creamy complexion. She looked familiar, her name seemed to be just out of reach in his memory although he knew she was in his year when her name finally came to him: Barbie, she was Maria Stewart, also known as Barbie. He realized that he knew nothing about her other than she was one of Brandon's friends and she'd never been one to provoke him, unlike Brandon and his cronies.

She still showed no sign of finishing so he looked up at the book again and since she seemed to be concentrating on her own search so much, he decided to take a chance. Unfortunately, the book was high enough that his initial grip on the book wasn't sufficiently secure and it turned in his hand so he had to move his other hand quickly to control it fully to keep it from falling. Regrettably he wasn't silent about it and the book may have slipped momentarily. 

He turned to look at Barbie and saw her levelling both a glare and and look of fear. Great, just what he needed. 

She scrutinized her eyes, "Irwin?" 

"That's me." He answered with a smile. Her face softened when she realized she had caught him in the girls school and now she had the upper hand. Perceiving him as no longer a threat, she kindly asked, "do you want some coffee." 

Turns out, in the back of the girls library there is a little coffee shop small enough to fit seven people. 

"I work here." She said, watching as he looked around the room, "my boss isn't here. She's a crazy teacher, Mrs. Shelley, and she is constantly worried about herself rather than her students." 

Ashton grunted, taking a seat on one of the hard wooden chairs. It wasn't exactly a cozy coffee house, but it was something. Barbie whipped up two espresso coffees and sat them in front of Ashton. 

He smiled, warm, bright and wide. He nods as he picks up the cup and her heart beats just a little faster.

"You're cute." She says out of nowhere, and Ashton just about chokes on his drink. She bursts into laughter at his sudden jolts. 

"Maria -"

"It's Barbie." She said flatly. 

Ashton grabbed a stack of napkins off the center of the table and began to wipe his face. "Barbie, what were you doing in the library."

She laughed, "I should be asking you the same question." 

"Good point." He muttered, taking a small sip of coffee. "Then let me ask you this: what were you doing with Brandon in the back of my library." 

She stifled a laugh, "do you really want to know the answer to that?" 

Ashton titled his head, face covered in a blush, "I want to make sure it's what I'm thinking." 

"Oh," she said, "and what are you thinking?" 

"You tell me first." He challenged. 

Barbie ran a hand through her long blonde hair, rolling it up in a bun, then letting it fall across her shoulders. When she replied, it was completely off topic, "you know, the first time I tasted coffee I was six years old." 

Ashton watched her soft freckles move as she spoke, "my foster mom left a cup unattended to when she answered the phone, it was one of those old kinds with the long curly cord that is attached to the wall. Anyway, I tasted the coffee and it was bitter, and hot and it burnt my tongue. I hated it." 

Ashton hummed softly. He liked listening to her beautiful voice. She continued her story.  "When I was fourteen, I thought it was cool to hang out at a coffee shop drinking beverages that were more milk than anything else. I had a crush on a boy who went there everyday. He had a blue streak in his hair. He asked me on a date but never showed up. I hated coffee again." 

"I'm sorry." Ashton whispered, feeling miserable when he sipped his caffeine beverage.

She shrugged and took a sip of the beverage  she claims to despise. 

"Why did you get a job working at a coffee shop if you hate coffee?" 

"It's become my drug of choice on those cold nights where I need to stay awake. Being in a reform school isn't easy. It's going to take a lot of work to get colleges to take me seriously." 

Ashton frowned. He hadn't thought about that. Then again, he never really thought much about his future. A few years ago, he wasn't even sure if he'd have a future. 

"Yeah," he muttered, staring intently at the table cloth. "I don't know, though." 

When he didn't continue with his thought, she brushed her hand against his. 

"What do you mean?" 

Ashton's eyes snapped up onto hers. "I don't know. Sometimes I think people fear the future too much. It makes sense why, but, at the same time, fearing the future is just hurting you from living in the moment."

"I need to plan-" she began, looking rather offended. 

"I know, I know. I'm not saying you shouldn't plan for the future. Because you should plan for it and have goals. I'm just saying, I came from a place where I didn't think I was going to live to see tomorrow and it really opened my eyes. I spent so much time enjoying every little thing in life. It was amazing." 

She laughed, a sweet candy laugh,  "that does sound amazing." 

Ashton took his hand away from her and blushed. She asked him what had happened in his past. 

"Sorry." Ashton said, "but I can't answer that. I prefer not to remember certain things." 

"I understand. But remember ashton, your past is nothing to be ashamed of. It makes you who you are." 

"Seriously, why do you hang out with Brandon so much? You seem like a great girl." 

Barbie smiled sadly. Her nails playing with the small empty creamer containers that were lying abandoned on the table. 

"He's not my boyfriend." She whispered, as if this was a secret for only Ashton's ears. Perhaps she didn't believe it herself. "He's forcing me to - forget I said anything." She stood up abruptly. "I have to get back to work." 

"Wait he forces you? To do what?!" Ashton was on his feet as well, panic in his eyes. 

"Never mind, I shouldn't have said anything. I was out of my mind." 

"Barbie." 

She glared angrily.  "Don't call me that."

"But you said -"

"Leave!" She pointed towards the door, "you shouldn't be here anyway. This is the girls school for a reason." 

Ashton had so many more questions. He couldn't leave now, but the way Barbie was looking at him, he knew he needed to exit quickly. 

"I'm sorry if I upset you." He said before he left, and he could have sworn her face crumbled just before he left. 

Ashton found his way back to Nia's room where his friends were sleeping on the floor while watching a movie. Well, Everyone, but Calum and Nia. 

"There you are." Calum exclaimed, standing up and running to hug Ashton. 

"Where have you been? Nia and I thought you got lost."

"Or caught." Nia interjected. 

Ashton chuckled as he hugged Calum back. "No, I was in the library and I met a girl." 

Calum smirked, "you mad dog." He stopped laughing when Nia slapped his arm. He muttered out a quiet apology then looked up at Ashton. 

"Who did you meet?" 

"Um, Barbie-"

Nia gasped, "what were you doing talking to  _her_." 

"Uh, she was working in the library and she offered me coffee."

"Don't get close to her, she's a bitch." 

"Nia!" Calum scolded. 

"I'm sorry but she is." The girl put a hand on her hips and whispered to Calum, "she's the reason we have to st-" 

Calum cupped his hand around her mouth so fast, it scared Ashton. He swore Calum was about the strangle her. 

"Shhh, Nia! Ashton's right there!" 

What was that supposed to mean? Obviously Calum and Nia were hiding something from him. Everybody in this school was hiding something from him. Honestly, it was really starting to piss Ashton off. 

"No, go ahead Nia, tell me." Ashton said irritated. 

Nia's mouth opened in concern. "I'm sorry Ashton, I shouldn't have said anything." 

"What the hell is going on around here?" 

"Nothing Ashton -"

"Obviously something's going on or you would tell me. Do you not trust me or something?" 

"No, it's just - it's complicated." Nia said cursing herself for giving a pathetic excuse. 

Ashton stormed over to the other side of the room and threw himself on the blankets. Calum went over to sit by him. "Come on man, don't be like that." 

Ashton turned away. 


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nia’s secret is out.

They scheduled yoga and meditation classes in the daily curriculum. The government officials thought the crazy reform school could use meditation to calm the rambunctious students down. They also hired as many therapists as there is teachers to help keep the kids relaxed and well behaved. Nevertheless, Mr. Day managed to get the government officials to agree to stop caning in the school. At least, he managed to get teachers to stop doing it. The principal still holds the power to do that. Either way, it was an incredible achievement to no longer have to fear a teacher thrashing their hands. 

 

Mr. Day is also helping organize school clubs for the arts which is amazing. Half the student body is rejoicing, thanking their lucky stars they have Mr. Day in their lives. For the first time in the school's history, students in other departments other than sports, were getting recognized for their talents. 

 

It was a particularly busy day today because this was family day. Parents of everyone in the school comes to visit their child for an evening and they get to enjoy some music and dinner before heading home. 

 

Ashton would have felt lonely if he didn't have three other best friends who were lonely too. The four of them together made everything a little better especially when they had to watch students hug their mom and dad and witness the proud pats on the back and happy conversations. Occasionally some guys would get in a headlock with their father. Or some guys would spin their little sisters around or throw them in the air watching with a smile that couldn't be wiped away. 

 

In moments like that, Ashton's scowl couldn't be wiped away either. He shouldn't be jealous. It's bad and ugly, he tells himself. But a part of him can't fight the bitter feeling he gets, deep in his stomach when he sees happy families. He should feel happy for others. And he does. He really does. But it still hurts. 

 

He was sitting next to Calum, Luke and Michael in the living hall area. They were forced to be out there when it was a family day. He heard a part of Calum's phone conversation because the boy was practically squished against his side due to the crowded room. 

 

"Now Calum, I expect you to make the soccer team next season," Calum's father said through the speaker of his phone, "you are good at soccer. There is no reason to waste talent." His father lectured him a bit. 

"Yes sir." Calum said, looking down obediently.

"And make sure to keep your grades up."

"Yes sir."

"And no partying or anything like that. We are spending good money on sending you here, money that could be spent on other things. We are making a sacrifice for you."

 _I would hardly think that your booze is a sacrifice._ Calumthought bitterly, but kept his mouth shut.

"Yes sir."

"See you during Holiday break."

"Yes sir." With that Calum's father hung up, leaving Calum to tug the sleeves on his jumper a bit farther down. 

"Do you think they have anything to drink out there?" 

Ashton shifted to look down the hallway where the kitchen area was. They said they were having a buffet for the families. 

"Maybe, but I'm not sure if we're allowed to eat it." 

"They can't f-ing starve us." Calum stood up ready to make his way down the hall, but he sat back down when he noticed how long the line was. 

"Never mind. I'd rather starve." 

A fit of random laughter erupted from the other side of the room as some mom was telling a really loud story about her dog at home. "I miss champ." Ashton overheard the boy say.

"I want a dog." Luke whined quietly. Michael snorted, leaning back in his chair and shaking his head. "You can't take care of a dog. You can't even take care of yourself."

"Yes I can." Luke huffed, puffing out his chest. 

"Can not."

"Yes I can." 

"Bro, you're room is a disaster." Michael said, "besides, I've seen you make a mess of Calum's room too."

"Luke is quite messy." Ashton admitted. 

"What does that have to do with getting a puppy?" 

Michael was stumped for a second, then he said the best comeback he could think of, "You'll lose your dog in that mess." 

"When I get a puppy, which I will once I'm out of this school, then I'll be more neat. And besides the puppy will be messy anyway so we can be messy together." 

"More like messed up." Michael said, laughing as Luke scowled. 

The families began pouring back into the main hall room once they had their food. 

"Why can't they just go down to the Mariliam. I don't want this place to smell like fish." Ashton said, pinching his nose. 

"Damn bro, they have pancakes!" Michael said. He eyed the stack of breaded dough and syrup. "I want pancakes."

"Then go get some." Ashton muttered. 

"I'm not waiting in that line."

"Then tough cookies." Ashton laughed at his own wording. 

"No bro, I'm gonna make some myself."

"How are you gonna do that?" Calum asked, "are you going to buy the supplies and actually cook in our tiny ass kitchen in our tiny ass dorm?" 

"No. I'm gonna have my mom fly all the way to New York just to make me some pancakes." 

After sitting for a while doing absolutely nothing, they were allowed to go back to their rooms. The four of them made a detour to the roof and decided to relax up their and play some songs. 

"You know, we were really lucky Mr. Day saved our asses. Could you imagine how bad it could've went down?" Ashton asked, checking a rhythm on his drums to make sure it was matching the bass. 

The stars were extra bright in the sky. "I'm so ready for the spring fling." Calum said, putting his instrument down on the concrete floor of the roof, "think of all the love songs we can sing." 

"Truth. We wrote like fifty." Ashton laughed. 

"Do you really think we should do this anymore?" Luke asked. "I mean, the school is better than it ever was. We can stop now." He took a sip of his water bottle then put it beside his electric guitar. 

"Actually, we have to continue because Mr. Day promised us he would pay us for performing at the dance." 

"Bro, that's awesome." 

"Besides," Michael continued, ignoring Ashton's interjection "we are having fun, aren't we?"

Looking between one another the four best friends started to chuckle. Of course they were having fun. Everything was better than it ever was, why should they stop? 

"But we should stop throwing out speeches in the middle of our songs that piss off the teachers and government officials." Ashton added. 

"Agreed. We can stop that crap because we fucking won boys!" 

All four of them cheered and raised their bottles of water clicking them against each other. In the moment of pure bliss, a feeling of sadness washed over Ashton like never before. It dawned on him the sadness was a realization that he may never see these three boys ever again. At the end of the school year, Ashton will be done with his probation. He will be free to go back home. All he wants is to be trapped again inside this lovely prison. 

"Ash, what's wrong?" Calum asked softly, "you look like you've seen a ghost."

He shook his head quickly, "nothing. I'm fine."

"You sure, brah?"

"Yeah. It's all good. I was just thinking of shit."

"It's never good to do that."

"Don't I know it." He laughed it off as a joke but it really hurt to know he may never see Calum, Luke or Michael again... in the future. He couldn't think about it right now or it would ruin the good vibes. 

"We should start picking out songs for the spring fling."

"Yeah we have a lot to plan. I was thinking we should definitely do the song beside you."

"Oh yeah, we're definitely doing that one."

                ____________________

Ashton went to bed at 3am and woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. He was freezing cold but his body couldn't stop sweating. He cringed as he sat up because he knew he was sick but today of all days, was not a good one to miss. He had a test in Science which was worth half his grade. Plus he promised to bring the PowerPoint for the music presentation. He was about to let his group down. 

It was 6:50ish, so Calum was already at breakfast. Finally, it made sense to Ashton, why the room was so quiet. 

Ashton slowly got up and dressed himself the best he could. His uniform was slightly sloppy and his hair was a disaster and he felt disgusting, but whatever, It will have to do. 

He walked down the hall to first period class, and groaned in pain. "here goes nothing." He thought miserably. 

English was difficult to get through, especially since they were discussing the Scarlet Letter which was like written in the eighteen hundreds or something which made it nearly impossible to understand. 

Throughout class, Ashton's stomach was flipping and turning making horrible noises the whole time. Calum kept looking back at him, but Ashton avoided eye contact. When class was finally finished, Ashton rushed to the bathroom and emptied the bottom of his stomach out into the poor innocent toilet. 

"Ew bro, that's disgusting." A voice from another stall said. Ashton scrunched his nose and resisted biting out the words, "I'm sorry my puking is an inconvenience to you. Don't mind me, I'm just dying!" But he didn't say that because a bloody lip would not help his stomach pain once so ever. 

Instead he screeched out a loud curse word before being more sick. His stomach convulsed. He was heaving and shaking while practically putting his whole head in the toilet. 

"Ashton?" Calum's voice came from behind the stall, "are you ok?" 

He was answered with a gross barfing sound. 

"Shit bro. You should go to the nurse." 

Ashton was practically in tears now. He would go to the nurse if he had the energy to get up, but he was way too ill to move. Water sprinkled out of the corner of his eyes. "Calum, I hate this. M-Make it s-stop." 

"I wish I could man." He said through the stall door as Ashton continued to violently retch. "I'll call the nurse in here." Calum said rushing away, leaving Ashton alone. Once the horrible stuff was out of his system, Ashton lifted himself off the floor and stumbled to the bathroom sink. He washed his mouth out with water for a good ten minutes before the nurse and Calum walked back in. The nurse had a wheel chair. Normally, Ashton would Insist on walking, but this time he was relieved to have a chair.  

"You poor thing, you're burning up." The nurse said as she helped him sit in the chair. "Let's get you in my office and lay you down." 

"I have a test."

"Oh don't you fret about that dear. I can write you an excuse. This is obviously an emergency and you are in no condition to go to classes today." 

"Yes ma'am." He replied weakly. It felt weird to be rolled down the school hallways in a wheel chair. He felt so weak, his arms shaking at his sides. Once he was in the nurse's office she and Calum helped put him on a bed. 

"Alright love, take it easy." She said sweetly. Then she turned to Calum and thanked him for his help. After he got his late pass, he was sent back to class. 

"I'm going to put a bucket next to you. Let me know if you need anything else. After I give you some Advil and your strength increases you can go back to your dorm and sleep. I'll signify the head of your house and tell them that you are unwell and they will take care of you properly." 

"Thanks." Ashton replied weakly. His fever was weighing him down. He doesn't understand how he was standing a few hours ago because the thought of standing right now made him want to vomit. 

"Did you eat something bad?" 

"No." Ashton groaned, "I don't think so." A cough quickly followed and he groaned louder. "Oh my stomach hurts." He cried. 

"Poor dear." The nurse went away and returned with a few pills and a heating pad. 

Ashton washed the pills down with some water and laid back on the plastic wrapped bed. "Thank you." He whispered again. 

"No problem. After all, it is my job." The nurse smiled. She handed him a cup of water and ordered him to drink. 

"I'll probably just throw it back up."

"You need fluids, Ashton. Please drink up." 

He slipped in and out of conscious for the remainder of his stay. Once when he woke up he saw the nurse drawing blood from another student and he passed right back out. Then, he awoke to quiet music being played in the background. Ashton was really out of it because he swore the band was the all american rejects singing dirty little secret. He threw up once again, because his stomach was twisting and churning in the most painful way. 

When he woke up again, he was covered in sweat, hoping he his fever broke, but doubting it would go away that quickly. The air in the room felt cool on his warm skin. He tugged over the blanket in the nurses office and stared at the closed door. He saw through the crack a long lanky silhouette of a boy standing by nurse rose. His voice sounded a lot like Luke's...

"Did you take your phenazopyridine pills?"

"Yes." The husky voice rasped. 

"And it still hurts to go to the bathroom."

"Yes." The meek response resembled everything about Luke. Ashton sat up in bed the best he could, and tried to get a better look. 

"And how about your butt. Did you put the ointment on that tear?" 

The kid, whoever he was, began crying in a soft manner. "I got another cut." 

"Another one? Oh dear. This is the fifth time this semester." 

"I know." The boy whimpered, "I wish it would stop." He cried. 

"I would certainly hope you are not having a serious disease. Normally, I would assume that, but instead, I am a little concerned about something else." She put something on the boy's face. It looked like an ice pack. 

"How long are you going to lie to me?" The nurse whispered, "I've already filed multiple reports, but unless you tell me who's doing this to you, I can't help you." 

"No one's doing anything." The boy, probably Luke, whispered. 

Ashton was out of bed now, his illness mainly forgotten. He needed to get a better look at the boy behind the door. He poked his eye through the crack and could see in better lighting that the boy was a tall blonde. He had on Luke's type of clothes, those skater shirts and black skinny jeans. Not to mention Luke's favorite pair of vans shoes. But something was horribly wrong with this version of Luke. His black pants were stained dark with blood. This Luke also had an ice pack over a black eye. 

Ashton jumped back in horror. He fell onto the bed and tried to think about what all of this could mean. The signs were so obvious from the beginning, but he was too sick to put the pieces into place. 

The next time he woke up, the nurse was right beside him, putting a cool rag to his forehead. "Hey there, Ashton. How Ya feeling? You were asleep for a while." Nurse rose was smiling at him with her warm smile.

"How are you feeling, love?" 

"Good." 

"Fantastic." She smiled again. 

"Was I asleep the whole time?" He asked, sitting upright. Maybe it was all a dream? Or a sick delusion. 

"I'm not sure, I was out by my desk for a while." Nurse rose said, "why?"

"Did Luke Hemmings come in here?"

"Now Ashton, you know I can't talk about other patients. Even if they are students. Health is a private thing." 

"Yeah, but -"

"Let's just worry about you." 

"Yes ma'am." He said dejectedly. 

                 --------------------------

He was back in his dorm room in no time, and he even felt less feverish. His house leader, Mr. Day, checked in on him three times and Calum was staying in Luke's room for the next few days because of Ashton's illness. 

He woke up the next morning to someone gently shaking his shoulder.

"Ashton?" Mr. Day's voice asked. "Ashton, wake up, the doctor's here."

Ashton's heart jumped in his chest. God, he hated doctors. Well, he was mostly afraid of needles. Slowly, Ashton opened his eyes and spotted Mr. Day sitting cross-legged on his side of the bed and Dr. Miller standing right behind him. 

"Hello, Ashton," he greeted with a smile.

Ashton tried to answer, but broke into a fit of coughing, which sent a sharp pain in his chest and he winced. The doctor frowned.

"That doesn't sound good," he said. "Mr. Day, would you mind going on the other side of the bed so I can do my examination?"

"Of course," He got up and pushed the desk chair over to the bed so the doctor could sit on it. He then settled next to Ashton on the other side. The doctor opened his briefcase on the floor. 

"I'm just going to start by taking your temperature" Dr. Miller said, taking out a mercury thermometer. 

Ashton complied and the doctor slipped the thermometer into his mouth. He waited for a few minutes, struggling to suppress a cough. He ended up coughing a few times with his mouth closed anyway.

"102.1," Dr. Miller stated as he took the thermometer out of Ashton's mouth, noting the number on a chart. 

The doctor rummaged through his briefcase some more and took out a stethoscope. He made Ashton take off his shirt and proceeded to listen to his chest, and then he made Ashton turn on my front so he could listen to his lungs.

"I need a blood sample." 

Ashton looked at Mr. Day with wide eyes. He wanted to be cool with it, he really did, but he couldn't make himself comply to the doctor's request. Mr. Day gently grabbed Ashton's wrist and unfolded his arm so the inside of Ashton's elbow was exposed to Dr. Miller. As the doctor dabbed the area with a cotton ball soaked in antiseptic, Ashton let out a panicked whimper and had the reflex to try and fold his arm. His breath caught up in his throat and his eyes welled up with tears. Ashton tried to pull it together but he couldn't, especially since the doctor was getting the needle ready next to him. The man approached with the needle to Ashton's arm. 

"Ashton, it'll hurt more if you don't relax your arm," I heard Mr. Day say.

"It'll be quick," the doctor assured.

Ashton tried to relax as much as possible, staring at the ceiling, but as he felt the needle pierce his skin, Ashton couldn't help but cry.  He probably would've been more calm if he wasn't already feeling so bad. 

"You did great, Ashton," Dr. Miller assured with a smile. That was enough to make him calm down and stop crying. Ashton dried his tears hurriedly with the back of his hand. "We're all done, now. Why don't you go back to sleep and I'll have a word with your head of house."

Ashton nodded, feeling small and vulnerable. He felt stupid for breaking down, but he couldn't pull himself together whenever there were needles around. As soon as the doctor and Mr. Day left, Ashton sank back on his pillows, feeling exhausted.he was so tired of being sick. 

Later that evening, after the lunch lady picked up his dinner tray and took it away, there was a knock at his door. A few seconds later a girl comes bursting through the door shouting about everything. 

"Calum, I thought you put the damn papers in the library book! But I was there today and there weren't any papers!" 

She walked further into the room and threw herself on the couch, "Barbie and Brandon are pissed! Where did you put the -"

She leaped up from the couch the second she saw Ashton. 

"Oh my God." Nia squealed, "im so sorry. I thought you were Calum. I mean, you're usually in the library at this time and Calum is here and -" she paused. Sucking in air, she eyed the door, "I'm gonna go" she said pointing towards the door and slowly creeping away. 

"Wait, Nia! It's okay. You don't have to run away." 

The brunette slumped her shoulders as she walked back to the center of the room. "I really should go." She said quietly. 

"Why?" Ashton asked, a smirk on his face. Honestly, he thought Nia's pink tinted cheeks and short messy hair was cute. She kept pulling at her hair messing it up even more. "I need to find Calum." 

"And ask him about the papers?"

She fixed her eyes on Ashton apprehensively. "...Yeah." 

"What exactly are he papers you've been hiding in the library?" 

A quick flicker of anger flashed through Nia's hazel eyes. 

"It's none of your business!" She said stubbornly. "I'm leaving -"

"It is my business." He said at the exact same time, "because Calum is my friend and my band partner. If he gets in trouble, I'm going down with him."

Nia actually laughed in the most mocking manner. "This doesn't concern you, Ashton. And what we are doing is not something you could possibly get in trouble for." 

"Then why can't you tell me." 

"Because... It's something we could get in trouble for." Her lips turned into a snarl, "look, I don't have time for this, can you please tell me where Calum is?"

"Can you please tell me what you are doing?"

Nia didn't waste another second, she spun around determined to leave, but was interrupted by her sister walking through the door. 

"Rena? What are you doing here?"

"Barbie's gonna do it! She already called the group home and told them she is cutting off all payments." 

"What! No! No! This can't be happening." Nia shouted. 

"Well it is happening. I already talked to Bobby, he is terrified. Where the hell is Calum?" 

"I don't know." Nia whispered, her voice clogged with tears. 

"Don't cry, Nia." She turned to Ashton frantically, "please tell us where Calum is?"

"Can you tell me what this is about?" Ashton asked. He felt badly for the girl considering her sister was crying and she looked terrified, but he needed to know what this was about before another one of his friends got hurt.

"Ashton. Please. I'm begging you." 

"Just tell me, Rena! Maybe I can help."

"God! Ashton, it's such a long story. I wouldn't even know where to begin. It's complicated." 

"I have time."

"But we don't. We need to get to Calum now or else our younger brother is going to be out on the streets, or in some Foster home." 

"He lives in a group home right now?" Calum asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rena nodded, "our parents passed away last year and he was taken to a home while we were brought to this school. In a few years, he can come to the boys school but only if we can pay for his education. With the budget at this school increasing, we needed a way to make sure our parents money they saved for him is enough to get him here. So, we made a deal with Barbie." 

Wiping her eyes, Nia added with a sniff, "Please understand, this was our only chance to make sure he came here. If he turns fifteen and he has no where to go, the group home will throw him out. Kids aren't allowed to stay there once they are high school age. They must attend a school of some sort or go into foster care or the work force." 

"Either way, he wouldn't be able to be with us." 

"And it's been so hard being away from him." Nia explained, tears falling from her hazel eyes. "We left the school a few times to see him. And one night, Barbie caught us."

"She said we have to help her or else she would tell. In return, she promised to help pay for his education." Rena muttered, keeping her eyes on her shoes. "She said we have to help her steal test answers."

"You're cheating?"

Nia nodded pitifully, "half of us girls are. Barbie has practically manipulated us for a year now. But worst of all, she's doing it for her boyfriend Brandon. He's the one who needs the test answers. He can't pass a test to save his life."

"Yeah his IQ is lower than my bank account. And I'm flat out broke." 

"Wait, how does this involve Calum?"

"Calum agreed to do it with Brandon. They both are on the soccer team and they both have a lot to prove to talent scouts and their parents. They can't afford bad grades." 

"So Calum is okay with Barbie blackmailing you?"

"She's not really black mailing us. More like manipulating us." Rena interjected.

"Does it really matter?" Ashton scolded, "the point is, Calum is willing to put you through this and cheat just so he can pass a class?"

"Some people are desperate for success. And Calum, is definitely desperate." 

"Wow." Ashton couldn't believe what he just heard. A million thoughts were running through his head but he couldn't shake the feeling of disappointment and anger. His blood was boiling and not just from the fever. 

"He's in Luke's room. I'll take you to him." Ashton moved to get out of bed, but Nia stopped him. 

"Don't. you're sick." 

"No, I insist." Ashton said, standing with a grunt. "I want to see what he has to say." 

Nia and Rena looked at each other with equally worried expressions. 

It took a mere two minutes to get to Luke's room. He was sitting by his window, listing to headphones when the knock at the door came. 

"Hey Ash, what's up?" 

"We need to talk to Calum."

Luke was about to inquire who the 'we' was until he saw Nia and Rena standing behind Ashton. 

"Oh - um, he's in the livingroom area."

"Great. Let's go." Ashton shoved past Luke and the girls walked by as well, apologizing to Luke for the rude interruption. 

Calum was laying on the couch eating pizza and potato chips while watching a footie game. He sat up when he saw the crew enter. 

"Nia! I wasn't expecting you -" he paused and then had an epiphany. "Shit! It's Thursday!" 

"Yeah it's Thursday, you jack ass!" Nia screamed, tears began to fall from her eyes again. "Did you just forget? Huh? Did you forget to leave to test answers in the book."

Calum's eyes widened, "shhhhh! NIA!" He shouted and pointed directly to Ashton. "He's right there." 

"Oh, he already knows."

"Excuse me?!" 

All of the yelling must have startled Luke, because he was cowering in the back of the room near his bed. He had the blankets pulled around his waist. Ashton noticed how his face didn't have a black eye, but it did look lighter than the rest of his face. As if he were wearing make-up. 

"I told Ashton what was going on." 

"WHY!" Calum hollered, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?"

Ashton piped in, pushing Nia to the side, "I think the better question is why wouldn't you tell me what was going on? HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME!" 

Rena was equally as scared, her small frame was shaking with every loud syllable shouted. 

"Because Ashton, there are some things you don't need to know. Ok? You don't need to know everything! Who the hell do you think you are always grilling me with questions and shit? What are you, the police?" 

"I'm your friend, or at least, I thought I was." Ashton retaliated. "But friends don't keep secrets like this from each other. Friends don't lie about getting good grades when in all reality they are failing! Friends don't manipulate other friends." Ashton pointed to Nia and Rena. "You fucking used Nia and Rena to get your good grades without even thinking of the consequences for them. Because you 'forgot' to give the cheating papers they might lose their younger brother."

"That's not exactly accurate." Calum interjected, "I didn't give them cheating papers I gave them answer keys to return to the girls school files." 

"I don't care! I don't care about any of that crap. All I care about is the fact that you are willing to risk your friends happiness for your own happiness. That right there is all I needed to know."

"Are you trying to say I'm the only one who keeps secrets in this friendship? Because that's a load of bull. You've been keeping secrets too! How about the whole Michael Clifford thing?"

"What?"

"Michael told you he was an alcoholic and he made you promise not to tell me and Luke. But that night at the party he told me what was up. So I know you were keeping that a secret."

"That's completely different." 

"Yeah, right, play that card." 

"It was Calum. I was protecting a friend, you were hurting a friend." 

"I was protecting Nia and Rena's younger brother."

"Yeah well that's pretty much shot to hell now." Rena intervened angrily. 

"I'm fucking sorry, ok! I forgot! Sorry to break it to you but I'm a human and this shit happens." 

"You were irresponsible because it wasn't your younger brother's life on the line." Nia yelled. "If it was Luke's life you would have done it."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It means Ashton is right! You're selfish!" 

Calum flinched back violently. The words Nia spoke indented his heart. 

"Well if that's how you feel then maybe we shouldn't be together." He said quietly. 

"Maybe we shouldn't." She agreed. With that, she turned around to leave. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up the mess you made. Again." 

With the two sisters gone, Calum and Ashton were left to fight it out. 

"I don't want to be around you." Calum said and he quickly left Luke's room. He raced down the hall and caught up with Nia in the dorm's study area which was empty at this hour. 

"What do you want?" She screamed as Calum tugged her arm. 

"I want to say I'm sorry! Nia, please don't leave."

"I have to call the group home and my financial advisor and - God I'm so stressed." 

Calum's eyes searched hers frantically. He was gazing into two pools of hurt and disappointment which were directed at him. 

"I can fix this." He said, "I'll just put the test papers in her office and I'll tell Barbie it was all my fault."

Rena, who was standing to the far right, pipped in, "technically you'll need to tell Brandon. He's the main person calling the shots."

"Okay fine, I'll tell Brandon. Look," he titled her chin up, "the most important thing is, I can fix this." 

"But you can't Calum." She shook her head away from his touch. "I don't want you to."

"I'm confused."

"I'm tired of cheating. It's an annoying secret to keep and I'm tired of constantly fearing school everyday because I'm afraid I'll get caught."

"But your brother?" 

"Like I said - I need to fix this." Nia walked away. 

"But what about us?" Calum asked and she said nothing. 

Ashton was standing behind him. "Maybe you should've thought of the consequences before you agreed to gamble her family." 

"Oh shut up Ashton, what would you know about family." 

Hurt flashed across Ashton's face. "That was low Calum. Even for you." 

"I'm sorry." Calum tried, but Ashton was storming back to Luke's room. 

"I'm sorry" He repeated again, following Ashton inside the room. Calum watched with terror as Ashton yanked Luke up out of bed by his front arm. The blankets were tangled around Luke's waist as he struggled to free himself. 

"If you're really sorry then fucking prove it! Stop keeping secrets and tell me what is happening to Luke." 

Upon hearing his name, Luke looked up at Ashton and tried to reason with him that nothing was going on. 

"I've seen the bruises Luke. I swear I saw you at the nurses today." 

"Ash, no offense buddy, but you're pretty sick." Calum said solemnly. 

"I know what I saw." Ashton spat back. 

"Are you gonna tell me what the hell is happening? If not, then you can forget the whole band thing because I'll quit."

"Ashton!"

"I'm done with secrets, Calum!" 

"Calm down." Luke murmured 

"Tell me!"

"Calum!" Luke begged. 

"Calum!" Ashton repeated.

"CALUM!"

"He's being abused by Almorado." Calum screamed, his eyes clenched tightly together and his fist clutched at his sides. 

A long drawn out silence followed along with a muffled cry from Luke. "Why would you tell him?" 

"Why wouldn't you tell me?" Ashton was more hurt than ever. His throat was squeezed so tightly together he was finding it difficult to breathe. Tears pooled up in Ashton's eyes. "Obviously, you two don't trust me at all."

"I didn't know what you would do if you knew. I knew Calum wouldn't tell anyone, but you might want to go to the police or something." 

"Of course I'm going to want to go to the police. Almorado, a teacher, is hurting you, Luke! That's illegal." 

"You don't know the whole story!" Luke exclaimed an irrational look in his eyes. 

"Then tell me! For the love of God please just tell me what is going on around here!" 

Ashton wanted to pull his hair out. This night was taken an even darker path than he expected. He felt like shit, his whole day was shit and now this evening was just icing on the whole shitty cake. As if he didn't already feel bad enough, he had to get into a fight with his friend. Ashton's head was spinning. His stomach was chewing on his intestines. He wasn't sure how much more bad news he could take. 

"It's a long story." Luke finally said, "but I guess I can try to explain it to you so you understand." 

Ashton would have almost cooed at the way Luke said the word 'understands' if his body wasn't trying to throw up right now. Ignoring the pain in his stomach, Ashton nodded for Luke to continue. 

"You can't tell anyone though, and you'll understand why once I tell you what's going on." 

Luke noticed the pained look on Ashton's face and his ghostly white completion. "Why don't you sit down." He offered. Once Ashton was sitting Luke began his story. 

"Um, this is really complicated, but basically, Almorado is abusing me because she thinks I have something of her's."

Calum shook his head, "no Luke, start at the beginning." 

"Right, so, two years ago, when the whole Kelly Marlo murder happened?" Luke asked. Ashton nodded, remembering that horrible story. 

"Well, I was there."

"WHAT?!" Both Calum and Ashton shouted. They looked at each other quickly and Ashton asked, "I thought you knew about this."

"I didn't know that part!" 

Luke sighed, "yes Calum, I'm capable of keeping secrets even from you." 

At Calum's pained expression Ashton smugly responded, "hurts doesn't it?" 

"Shut up." The tan boy muttered, "go on Luke. You have a lot of explaining to do." 

Taking a deep breath, Luke continued, "so I was in the girl's school two years early because my mom sent me there. I was meant to assist the teachers until I was old enough to go to school, like I am this year." 

Calum nodded, understanding that part. Ashton was slightly confused, but he didn't interrupt. 

"I was helping a teacher at the girls school when the murder happened." 

"What teacher?"

"Mr. Day." Luke answered, "remember the faculties as well as the students from both schools were combined at the time." 

"Right, keep going."

"Um, what was I saying?"

"You were helping a teacher when the crime took place?" 

"Oh yeah, so I was in Mr. Day's office which was right across the hall from Armorado's office. Basically, the murder happened next door and I saw Kelly Marlo walk in and I saw Armorado walk out screaming for help. She saw me and Mr. Day first because we were right across the hall. She ran down the hall and Some other teacher came running to help. Mr. Day was already inside her office when she got back. They called the police but you know what happened. Here's the thing, though, guys. I never saw Troy Fisher leave the room." 

"Oh my God, Luke, are you saying..."

Luke nodded with tears in his eyes. "I'm almost sure she did it because when she was hired here, she pulled me aside and asked me if I went in that room with Mr. Day or if Mr. Day gave me something to hide. When I told her no, cause he really didn't give me anything, she started... Doing stuff to me."

Ashton sucked in a deep breath, "what kind of stuff?" He whispered, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Bad stuff." Luke sniffed, his blue eyes filled with unshed tears. 

"How did she hurt you? Does she just hit you?" 

Luke nodded, "and she -" he shook his head as his face crumpled. "I don't want to tell you. I can't tell you! I'm humiliated." 

"Luke, please don't be embarrassed. You're around two friends who love you immensely." 

"And Michael does too." Calum added, sitting next to Luke on the bed and wrapping a blanket around him. 

Luke took the blanket and put it over his head, "don't look at me." He cried. Then after a long pause, he finally admitted to something, "She touches me and makes me do things I don't want to do. And if I don't do it, she threatens to kick me out of school."

Now Ashton was scared. "Does she make you do sexual activities? Is that what you mean?" 

"Yes." Luke cried. The blanket he was under was quaking like no tomorrow. Calum wrapped him in a gigantic hug. "I had no idea it was that bad." 

"Why don't you let yourself get kicked out of school, Lu? It's got to be better than living in hell."

"You don't get it." Luke took the blanket off his head and revealed a disheveled set of hair and red eyes. "The whole reason my mom sent me here two years early is because she was trying to protect me from my step-father." 

Ashton cringed. It wasn't fair! What did Luke ever do to deserve the life he was given. It made Ashton's blood boil. His blood pressure seemed to get unhealthily high these days. 

"That's it." Ashton said, "we have only one option then. We have to turn Almorado in." 

"We're you even listening? She'll expel me!" 

"Not if you get her fired first. Hell, Luke, if what your suggesting is true, then she's a fucking rapist and murderer. I'm pretty sure she shouldn't be a teacher." 

"Why would she kill Kelly Marlo anyway?" Calum wondered. 

"Because Kelly was going to tell on her."

The chilliest spring breeze swept through the open window in Luke's room. Ashton felt goosebumps prick on the side of his arms. But no matter what, he was determined to tell on Ms. Almorado. 

He was determined to help his best friend. 


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Rebellion, awareness is born.

The world outside was a bleak grey. Rain silently beat at the windows from the storm outside, but the unfortunate weather was only the beginning of the terrible events yet to come. 

Ashton and Calum had informed Michael of the abuse Luke has been going through and his theory on Almorado being involved in the murder of Kelly Marlo. Now, on this rainy Wednesday, the four boys were headed to Principal Feldmann's office to tell him what's been happening to Luke. 

When they got to the Mariliam, they put their umbrella's away and knocked on the principals door. The secretary seated them and told them to wait. 

Luke was bouncing his right leg up and down in a fast rhythmical pace. Ashton honestly felt just as nervous as Luke did because he never did anything like this before and something in the pit of his stomach was screaming this is a bad idea. But he didn't know how it could possibly be bad to get his friend help. 

When Ashton lived on the streets because he ran away from his parents, he met a gang member named Vinnie. This Vinnie became like a real father to him because he took Ashton under his wing and taught him how to fight. He also taught him a few lessons about life. One of those lessons was about helping a friend in need. He said, when someone is hurting someone you have to fight to protect those who can't defend themselves. Ashton has always agreed to this motto, that is, until he was actually faced with the challenge. Now it seems difficult to help, when it would be so easy to say 'it's not my problem'. But it was Luke's problem. And Ashton would be damned if he didn't help his little blonde friend. 

"Principal Feldmann will see you now." 

The four boys entered the principals office and took a seat. 

"Well, what brings you boys to my office on a rainy Wednesday afternoon?" 

"Mr. Feldmann," Ashton began, voice a little higher pitched than usual. "We have something really important to tell you." 

Calum, Michael and Luke nodded. Then Calum added, "Luke's in trouble." 

Principal Feldmann fixed his blue and white tie. "Oh? How so?" 

Ashton, Michael and Calum's eyes were all on Luke. They were waiting for him to admit and explain his problem. Luke made eye contact with each of his friends before saying, "My teacher, Ms. Almorado is... hurting me." 

"Hurting you? Are you meaning to tell me that a member of my staff is abusing her power."

"Yes sir." Luke whispered quietly. 

"And we're all here to help support him because Luke's our best friend and we can't stand to see him in pain." Michael finished proudly. He shot Luke a wide smile which helped ease Luke's mood slightly. 

"I'll have to file a misconduct form and contact the police. They will then have a full blown investigation which may spread the word that our school is not the best place to be. Likewise, Ms. Almorado is a retired government official who worked on multiple school boards. So I'm going to ask you this once, are you sure she is abusing you?"

What kind of a question was that. Ashton wanted to leap over the table and strangle Mr. Feldmann for not jumping to Luke's defense. 

"Yes. One hundred percent." The youngest boy said. He was feeling particularly empowered at the current moment. 

"Very well. I'll contact the police. In the mean time, I'll need to send you to the nurse so she can do a full examination on you."

Luke's face paled drastically. "Guys, I don't want -"

"Relax, Luke. It's better than living in constant fear, isn't it?" 

"I guess." Luke whimpered. 

"You'll be ok uggie." 

 

                  ___________________

Throughout the week some crazy stuff went down. Once, Ashton was sitting on the bench outside the library waiting to walk Michael to class when he saw Almorado being lead inside a police car by officers. Then, on Friday, Ashton witnessed her return to campus when her car pulled up in the parking Lot and she stormed into Principal Feldmann's office. Finally, the worst thing happened when he was in Music Class on Monday.

They were currently learning about the violin when Principal Feldmann and the government official, Mr. Valdez, interrupted the class. 

"Hi everyone. I hate to barge in but can I speak with Mr. Day and Luke for a moment?" 

Mr. Day had never looked so surprised, he nodded anyway and excused himself from the class. Mr. Valdez's assistant took over teaching for the short period of time. 

Calum tugged Michael and Ashton up by the sleeve and exited the room. "Excuse me boys, where are you going?" 

"To the bathroom." Calum lied. 

"Don't you need a hall pass."

"I'll take my chances." Calum muttered. He and the other two followed Luke and Mr. Day all the way to the principal's office. They waited outside, listening into the door. 

Inside the office, Mr. Feldmann was sitting at his desk, and sweating horribly. His face was red and he kept sharpening his pencil over and over again until the tip would break and then he would start all over again. 

Mr. Valdez was standing next to Mr. Day. "Have a seat sir. It has come to my attention that new evidence has come out about you harassing a student."

"You're not serious? I never harassed a student in my life!" 

"We have video evidence saying otherwise." Mr. Valdez directed their attention to a TV monitor and he pressed play with the remote. 

The video was blurry, but it showed Mr. Day going into the music room with Luke. He fast forwarded and when Luke left the room he was in tears and Mr. Day reached out to grip his wrist and pull him backwards and whisper something in his ear. 

When the video stopped, Mr. Day sat shell shocked. "That's your proof? I was talking to Luke! He was upset about sow thing and I wanted to tell him that I am always here for him. He started to leave and I pulled him back telling him to please come to me if he ever needs my help." 

"You were grabbing him roughly and in the exams we did on Luke, his wrist was pretty bruised up." 

"No offense to Luke, but that boy is always bruised up! He comes to class limping, crying and bruised at least 3 times a week. That's why I was talking to him. I'm not the only teacher who has talked to Luke about what's been going on."

"No, but your the only one who is causing the problem." Mr. Valdez said. 

"Where is this coming from?" Mr. Day asked angrily. It was rare for Mr. Day to even raise his voice. "What's in it for you Valdez, cause you know damn well this won't stand up in court." 

"Maybe, and maybe not."Valdez smirked, "I'm just trying to protect a student." 

"Yeah right." Luke said, "this is bull shit! I told you guys who the real culprit is. Almorado."

"Oh sweetheart." Said the voice of none other than Almorado herself. Ashton didn't realize she was in there the whole time. "You don't need to protect Mr. Day anymore. You can tell the truth."

"I am telling the truth!" Luke shrieked his voice squeaky. "As you of all people know it! You're the one hurting me."

Mr. Day stood up and the the chair topple to the floor. "Your the one whose been hurting this boy!" 

Almorado gasped and hid behind Valdez. "Daddy, make him stop." 

"DADDY!" Mr. Day began to laugh maniacally. "Oh this is gold. So you're going to suspend me on superficial garbage while your daughter gets away with abusing a teen boy with no proper investigation because she's your daughter and she'll obey your commands to continue the budget.  

"Come now, Mr. Day. Your time at Summers Institution is over."

Mr. Day pushed Valdez off of him. He looked Almorado right in the eyes and screamed, "You should have been fired years ago."

"Enough of this. Feldmann, call security." Valdez ordered. 

"Feldmann don't let them do this." Mr. Day pleaded. 

"I can't deny them anything." The principal responded sadly. "He's in charge of me."

"Do you know what they're going to do to your school once I'm gone? 

Mr. Feldmann snapped his pencil in half. He began to shout at Mr. Valdez for ruining the lives of many young students. But fat old Mr. Valdez simply dragged Mr. Day away, threatening Feldmann on the way out. 

"This isn't over!" Mr. Day said. "The court will repeal my case." 

"Until then good sir, until then." 

Once those two were gone, Almorado walked forward and grabbed Luke by the chin. 

Mr. Feldmann slapped her hand away, "touch him and I'll report you to the highest official. Someone bigger than your daddy."

Almorado squinted her eyes, "calm down Feldmann. I'm just going to escort little Lukey back to class."

"He can walk himself. Besides, I'd like you to stay here so we can cover some other issues."

"Very well. I do want to change this poor discipline system you've got here. You may go Luke." 

With that, Luke raced out of the office right into Michael's arms. 

Michael held the frantically squirming boy. "Hey, hey calm down." Michael shushed, rubbing his fluffy hair with his hand. 

"Did you hear! This is horrible! It's awful! It's, it's..." Luke completely broke down in tears. Ashton and Calum shared miserable looks before turning their attention back to Luke. What could they say. Everything really was awful.

                ______________________

Pain and suffering was working its way here at the summer's institutional school ever since Mr. Day was forced to leave. Miss Almorado convinced the school board with ease that a more strict policy should be implemented at a school for troubled boys. Likewise, she proposed a 'safer' way for students to study considering the situation with Mr. Day harassing students. To ensure that won't happen again, The leader of the school board, Mr. Hooper, made it a rule that students must be escorted from building to building with a Senior student. Senior students must leave in groups of four if they wish to go anywhere. Any student found breaking the rules could be sentenced to a canning with Mr. Feldmann. 

If that wasn't bad enough, students were no longer allowed to go to the coffee house because it was considered "a place for students to slack off." Now the only place they could go to was the library and classes. The Mariliam was more guarded than ever before with extra security guards all over the place. 

The students were in the cafeteria on a Friday when Mr. Feldmann announced another rule. 

"Attention students. Due to the lack of support your parents give the school -" he cleared his throat and looked hesitantly at Ms Almorado. The lady, in a bright neon green jacket, with excessive purple dots, nodded for him to continue with a sick, twisted smile. 

"We have decided that all mail will no longer be delivered or accepted here due to the amount of money it costs for mail. If you would like to contact your parents you may do it over the monitored email system from the hours 10am -2pm or you will have to wait until family day." 

The crowd of unruly boys groaned in frustration. A few of them even through their glasses of water at Mr. Feldmann which shattered and made a loud enough noise to scare an alligator. 

"That's enough of that." Ms. Almorado yelled. "If you threw your drink of food you will not be having seconds. In fact, another rule in the process is about the food you are given. I believe in order for boys to learn they need a good nutritional balance of food. So starting next Monday, the lunches will no longer serve pizza, ice cream or any junk food. Only veggies and fruit will be served. On the occasion you will be permitted to eat chicken for protein but that's only if you can get good grades." 

"This is outrageous!" Someone next to Ashton was screaming. A bunch of students were complaining as they usually do. 

"Silence!" Mr. Feldmann yelled. "After dinner you are all to return to your dorms. There will be no wondering around the school grounds past 7:30." 

Every ounce of food found on the table was thrown and Mr. Feldmann and Ms. Almorado. 

                _______________________

It was Tuesday afternoon. Ashton was in science class with Luke when Max was ordered to the front of the room because he forgot his homework. 

Ashton had been trying to ask Luke if he was still getting tortured by Almorado because he couldn't talk to Luke at night considering he was trapped in his room after 7:30pm every night. Even when he wasn't stuck in the room, Luke was never available to practice singing because he was busy doing stuff. That's what worried Ashton. Calum's texted Luke and the boy assures him everything is alright, but Luke's be promising that since the beginning of the school year. 

Max Mallony's slicked black hair was falling in his face as he stood in front of Ms. Almorado, his side to the class. 

"Do you care to explain why you didn't do your homework."

"I forgot," he shrugged, "it happens." 

"Not in my school." 

Ashton said snarly in his head, "this isn't your school." 

"Hold out your hand, Mr. Mallony." 

Max's eyebrows screwed together. "No." He whispered in a quiet plea. She grabbed for his hand and he pulled it back. 

"Don't. Touch. Me." Max growled defiantly. 

Almorado simply tisked. "Very well. If your going to be a brat..." 

She walked around her desk and picked up the telephone. "Dave can you come in room 214. Thank you dear." 

Soon enough a security guard came in the room with his full uniform on. 

"Can you please escort Mr. Mallony to the court yard." 

A kid in the back of the room stood up, "wait you mean the boxed off court yard? The one with barbed wires and fences?"

"That's the one Mr. Carter." She said with a sly smile on her dried lips. "Perhaps a weeks worth of running laps in the court yard will fix his behavior problems. After all, bad kids deserve to be punished. If he isn't running he isn't learning his lesson. Make sure he runs four laps a day." She told the security guard and that was the last time Ashton saw Max Mallony for the rest of the week. 

 

"This is completely barbaric!" Michael yelled in the darkness of his dorm room. The last thing he had was his phone which he used to call Ashton, Luke and Calum. "She's taking over the whole school. Not to mention, she's evil!!!" Ashton could almost vision Michael's animated face. "Half the things she does is illegal! And we have no way of stopping this. It's ridiculous." 

"I know." Ashton commented sadly, "but you said it yourself, were helpless right now." 

"I wish there was something we can do." Calum said, "I've tried contacting my parents via text and phone calls but there's no signal." 

"There must be a way to fight back." Michael growled. 

"How? Every slight mistake we make gets us either canned, thrown in isolation or worse, sent to the court yard to slave away." Calum muttered. 

Luke quiet voice came through the speakers, "I saw nurse rose again today. She said the amount of people admitted into her hospital has tripled in the past week than ever before."

"This sucks." Ashton agreed, "but we can't give up. We'll find a way to make this school a better place to live."

                ______________________

 The students in the common room were all chatting happily, despite the fact that Mr. Day had been sent away and their most hated professor was the new person to propose changes to the school board. Spirits were still strong in Summers Institutional school, especially with the spring fling approaching. 

 

Ashton Luke and Calum were sitting at a table on the outskirts of the excited crowd and they looked up as Michael returned from talking with Tucker with a smile on his face. The look was so different than how he would normally react to the other students that use to ignore him that it upset the balance of the universe. "so guys, the Spring Fling starts on Friday and we'll have plenty of time then…"

"Are you feeling all right?" Luke asked, staring at him in disbelief. Ashton was also watching Michael a bit worriedly, although something else kept distracting him. An idea that he was fondly turning about in his head, as he had been doing ever since school started.

"Now that you mention it," said Michael happily, "d'you know... I think I'm feeling a bit... rebellious."

"How about we really be rebellious?" Ashton said as he came to a sudden decision.

"What do you mean?" Luke squeaked. 

"Let's get Almorado fired. All we have to do is prove she is responsible for that girl's death." 

"Oh yeah, Ash! That's real simple." Calum spat. "It's not going to be hard at all." 

"Ok ok, so it will be difficult. I never said it was going to be easy, but once we do it -"

"Hold up Ashton. What exactly do you think we can do?" 

"I have no idea." Ashton cried in frustration. Slouching in his seat to mope, he listened to Michael pitch his idea. 

"Alright guys. We made a movement once before with our music so who's to say we can't do it again. I'm thinking we need to figure out a clever way to stop Almorado through our music and then play it at the spring fling." 

"It's not a  _bad_  idea." Calum shrugged. 

"It's kind of all we got right now so why not?" 

They were just about to make plans to meet on the roof when the principal walked up on a table and called for attention. 

"Attention students. Due to unorthodox behavior from students at our last dance, we will be canceling the spring fling this year to ensure that no boys or girls will have any way to communicate or mingle." 

Thousands of moans and groans were heard from all over the cafeteria along with multiple screams of profanity. 

With that, Feldmann was done lecturing and left the student grounds at once. "This is bull shit." Some boy yelled and Ashton couldn't agree more. 

He sulked in his chair, while Michael voiced his opinions loudly. Maybe too loudly...

"Excuse me, Mr. Clifford, will you follow me to my office. I think I have something for that dirty mouth of yours." 

                 _____________________

"That low life . . . power-hungry bitch. . . restricting free speech . . . how  _dare_  she," Michael muttered wildly under his breath as he opened a glass of wine with a vicious pop of his hand. It had been past one in the morning when Almorado had finally released him. Michael had begun whimpering in pain on the way back to the dormitory, and by the time he entered the common room, he had been on the verge of a nervous collapse. He and Luke had fallen asleep in the common room, their mouths still burning from the ridiculous amount of black goo that laid on their tongues. Almorado used her special concoction of hot sauce and burning tar on the poor unfortunate souls that get sent to her office. One student was crying in pain so she sent him to the court yard so he could scream as loudly as he wanted and no one would hear him. 

They had only caught a few hours of restless sleep upright in the armchairs, punctuated by stabbing pain on their tongues. Needless to say, this did little to repair Michael's shattered nerves. "Worst excuse for a human . . . Fat old woman . . . "

"The worst part is," Michael began for the tenth time that morning, "I never said anything detention-worthy! I didn't mention Mr. Day, or yell at her, or anything!"

"pompous old sadist . . .  _cruel_  little bug . . . using corporeal punishment "

"I'm with you on this one" Calum said grimly, taking Michael's glass of wine away. "I mean, I could understand if she gave you a warning but  _detention_ -"

" _Detention_ , Michael? You've received another detention?" The four whirled around, guiltily to see Mrs. Lash glaring at them. "What have I told you about fighting for a music class? I don't care how she provokes you, you must-"

"But I didn't mention anything about Mr. Day or the music class, I swear!" Michael said strongly. Mrs. Lash looked skeptical. 

"If that's so, Michael, why did you receive detention?" she questioned.

"He has detention because he spoke out against professor Almorado about canceling spring fling. Then I got detention for disagreeing with something she said in her science lesson. and now we both have detention for a week!" Luke blurted out in one breath. Mrs Lash looked stunned at her top student.

" _You_  have detention, Luke? I'm surprised at you. I thought you would know better," their teacher said through pursed lips.

"But all I said was that I disagreed with shocking animals to test research." gasped Luke, "That's all I said, honest!"

"And she gave you a week's worth of detentions for saying  _that_? Well, if that- _woman_ -is truly determined to hand out detentions to my Students like candy, I suppose there is nothing we can do to stop her," said Mrs. Lash irritably, giving the strong impression she would have preferred to use a stronger word than "woman." 

"In the mean time, we must concentrate on the work at hand. I see Mr. Hood is already breaking another rule by drinking wine-"

"No I was." Michael quickly answered, "but i didn't drink any yet." 

"can you dump the wine for me and then begin studying" She quickly returned to her typical teacher ways. 

"Yes ma'am." they chorused, doing as they were asked. 

"Good, by the time finals come up I want you four to be well prepared. Especially you Ashton. I know math is difficult for you so I am offering help - what on Earth?" 

She broke off, staring at her palm, which was lightly smeared with blood where it had touched Luke's hand on accident, "Lucas, is your  _hand_  bleeding?" she demanded. 

He realized in horror that his constant use of his hand reopened last night's barely healed wounds. Michael hastily stowed his wounded hand in the pockets of his uniform. 

"He cut his hand on a, ah, broken wine bottle this morning," Calum lied quickly. "It's just a minor cut."

"Ah, right, that's what happened," Luke said hurriedly. "Just a broken bottle. No problem."

"Well, there is no need for students to be walking around with injured hands when we have a certified nurse that works here." said his teacher gently. "Let's see that hand, luke, I'll take you to the nurse." 

As Luke was led down the halls, his friends following behind, he did not find his peer's faces encouraging.

"Your  _hand,_  Luke." ordered the nurse more sharply, and with extreme reluctance, Luke relinquished his hand. 

"Oh dear, I see you've had a run in with the cane again. Poor boy." quoted nurse rose softly. 

In horror, Mrs. lash took a good look at Luke's hand and realized the cuts were caused by mrs. Almorado and not some alcohol bottle. 

The half the students in the hallway waited by the door for their teacher to understand. When she did, she exploded.

"Almorado! She did this to you, didn't she? How dare she? How  _dare_  she beat my students for no reason at all. The idea! You should have come to me the moment that bit- that  _woman_ laid hands on you, Luke. I'm going to her office this minute and straightening this out.

"Oh  _please_ , Mrs. Lash, don't complain to Almorado," fretted Calum nervously. "The punishments aren't that bad, you know. It's really no big deal."

Mrs. Lash stared at him like she had never seen him before. "I'm surprised at you, Calum." she said, "I thought you would realize that this is our opportunity, no, our  _right_ , to finally be rid of that woman. The things she is doing is illegal I intend to send a message to the government official. Ms. Almorado will be removed from this school, at the very least."

"But only if Valdez listens to you, and he  _won't_  listen to you, ma'am you know he won't! He's supported his little spy too openly to retract that support now. He'll just shuffle away the evidence, like he did when Luke warned him about the abuse Almorado did to him. He will claim that "poor, disturbed Luke" has started cutting himself, or something. I bet he'll even have Almorado sack you, for "insubordination" or "false accusations" or something. Then he'll be able to add another Government spy to the  teaching staff! To top it all off, Valdez we'll probably push the Prophet into writing an article about how Harry is a self-mutilating freak," Calum said in a rush.

His teacher drew herself upright, her eyes flashing with a terrible anger that was not directed at Calum. "Are you implying," she said, very, very coldly, "that I am unable to protect my students in this school?"

Calum shuddered. "Well . . . with things the way they are . . . with Almorado taking over the whole school. . . and the Government interfering . . .  _yes_. Yes, I don't think you're able to protect us from that cruel woman's evil actions."

Professor Lash sat down hard on the edge of The nurse's desk. The blood drained from her face, leaving her white and pale. "This is the worst thing that woman has done yet," she said softly, staring at her quivering hands. "She's made it impossible for me to protect my students." She swallowed hard, taking a moment to regain control. 

 "Might I suggest some ice and a vast amount of Aloe Vera moisturizer." 

"That's alright. Ashton has some. I've been using it after she punished me for weeks," Luke told her. "I'll survive."

She nodded jerkily. "At least I now know better than to report student infractions to our principal. Because Almorado is above Feldmann at this point.  If this is what her form of discipline looks like, I'll instruct my fellow staff members to deal with troublemakers personally." 

"That would really help, Professor," said Calum, "Nobody wants their hand sliced open because they forgot their homework."

"Or their mouth burned off for voicing an opinion." 

Their teacher flinched. "Right. Precisely what I meant."

They inspected their teacher's distressed face worriedly. "You're  _certain_  you won't complain about Almorado?" Ashton asked. "Because you have to understand, it really won't help, and-"

"I understand, Mr. Irwin." Mrs. Lash said sharply. They all flinched at her tone. "A sadistic woman is torturing my students and there is nothing I can do. I understand perfectly."

She stalked away without another word leaving the boys to thank nurse rose, and  take a bag of ice to their rooms to think about what she said. 


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Over Throw!

Luke's face was pale. He was caught red handed, walking in the halls past curfew time. He was trying to get to Calum's room when he was caught. 

"I see, Mr. Hemmings, that detention has done nothing for your disrespect of authority or your temper. And as I've explained to Valdez, desperate times call for desperate measures."

Luke swallowed. "I'm s-s-sorry- I'll just go back to my dorm."

"No, You will be caned, Mr. Hemmings."

Luke slowly sat down again. The room was silent enough that a pin could have been heard dropping on the floor. 

Finally, Luke found his voice. "You can't . . . that isn't . . ."

"I most certainly can," she smiled. 

She walked him down to the bottom floor where the kitchen was and grabbed a cane off the wall. Luke's heartbeat spiked as she took out a long, whippy cane and swished it experimentally.  _This isn't happening,_  he thought desperately.  _Please tell me it's not happ —_

"Hold out your right hand, Luke." He hesitated, and her smile grew wider. "You've just earned another stroke. Do I need to ask  you again?"

Luke slowly extended his right hand, palm up, to about chest level. He tried to think how the cane would hit him; it would be better to pull down on his thumb, wouldn't it?

"You shall count each stroke as I give it," Almorado purred, "and if you move or forget to count, that stroke must be taken again." She ran her fingers along the length of the wood, staring at Luke. The seconds ticked by; what was she waiting for? He stared back, eyes flinty.

Finally, she sighed and stepped forward so she was in position to start the punishment. "Manners," she clucked. "He can't even spare a simple 'Yes, ma'am.'"

Luke bit back a retort and gritted his teeth, trying not to let his hand tremble.

Almorado raised the cane; he heard it whistle in the air before striking his palm with a  _thwack!_  Had Luke's teeth not been clenched so, he would surely have cried out. He'd never imagined how much it would hurt. His hand felt as if he'd gripped a poker that had been lying in the fire.

As he watched, the skin began forming a weal, first pink, then almost immediately darkening to red, with an abnormally white edge. Just in time, Luke remembered that he was to count the strokes. "One," he said through his clenched teeth. The sting was actually worsening over time; he wished he knew how many she planned to give.

But Luke would die before giving in to this woman. If it killed him, he'd keep quiet.

She smiled, of course. "Very good," she trilled before raising the cane again.

 _Thwack!_  The fleshy parts of Luke's palm were getting the brunt; there was absolutely no way to hold his hand perfectly flat. His head spun dangerously at the searing pain. "T-two."

The pain only intensified as the seconds ticked by. He couldn't stop his eyes from prickling with tears, and he could only desperately hope that none would fall. To prevent it, he searched his mind for some happy thought, but came up empty. 

 _Thwack!_  Another stroke landed practically in the same place as the last.  _Bloody hell . . ._  "Three." Luke felt an involuntary whimper vibrate in the back of his throat, but thankfully, Almorado didn't appear to have heard. She seemed disappointed at his stoicism as she lowered the cane to her side.

"The last stroke was for disobeying me," she said. "What do you think, Mr. Hemmings?Has my cane gotten through to you better than detention?"

Luke slowly lowered his arm. His hand felt as if he'd pressed it to a hot stove, and it pulsed in time with his pounding heart. He longed to clench the fist to rid it of the horrible pain, but refused to give her the satisfaction. Almorado was looking at him with a satisfied smirk on her face. Since Luke could tell she expected an answer, and refusing to speak would likely earn him another cut, he replied, somewhat insolently, "Yes,  _ma'am._ "

"Good. Now, go to your dormitory." 

Luke scurried off. The next morning he told Ashton what happened and that was the last straw. 

                 _____________________

Ashton stood up and called out "may I have your attention please?"

The students of Mr. Frey's English class, who had been socializing before beginning class,  slowly sat down. They seemed to be wondering what he could possibly say that was more valuable than their precious moments together. 

Ashton almost smirked, everyone in the room had their attention on him and it felt good for once. He felt powerful. 

"I think that I've got a way to get rid of Almorado." He said quickly.

Everyone stopped muttering. Suddenly every eye was locked on him. Ashton gave a small smile.

"After reading about the American civil rights movement, and the Indian passive resistance movement, I propose we do something similar."

Ashton was met with blank looks.

Before he could explain Calum spoke up.

"Hey Ash, for those of us who aren't very good at school, why don't you tell us exactly what your grand plan is?" he said spitefully.

Ashton only sighed. "Passive resistance." He said simply. He heard gasps of comprehension from some of the students in the room. 

"We don't have to fight almorado  _directly_ ; we only have to make her position here untenable." Ashton said slowly.

While about half the room now had exited looks, the rest were still clueless.

Michael spoke "Ashton, in order to fight Almorado, we have to fight, that's what the This is all about."

Ashton sighed again. "Michael, we are taunting Almordao, yes, but we are not doing anything to drive her  _out!_ "

"That's because we can't." Jake said, his friend Tyler nodding alongside him. 

"Wrong!" Ashton said loudly. "We DO have the power to force her out. All we have to do is call a full boycott of her classes, all of them."

Comprehension sped around the room. Gasps were heard, and suddenly everyone started talking at once.

After a few minutes, Michael stood up at the front of the class and called out. "Okay, we know that we can do this, but first we need to vote on this, who's in?" every hand in the room went up.

"Ok, then when do we want to start, remember, we need time to get the word out."

"How about Monday?" Dirtbag Danny suggested. "Gives us time to spread the word, as today is Thursday." 

There was a murmuring of agreement.

"All in favor of beginning the Almorado Boycott on Monday?" Ashton asked loudly.

Every hand went up. Michael and Ashton shared a grin.

                    _________________

It took less than three days for the news to circulate in secret. Despite the hundreds of students that knew about the boycott, not one of them told Almorado or the newly hired teachers that were no doubt a part of her inquisitive squad. 

Ashton and Michael were the primary organizers, and the weekend was filled with hundreds of students asking them questions which they had to find answers to.

Tucker and Danny had requested permission to perform pranks across the school that would distract Almorado from her tormenting students. Ashton and Michael had debated for nearly an hour, with both heavily fighting for one side or the other. Finally it was decided that limited pranks would be approved, but they couldn't go over board because the other classes had to continue uninterrupted for the boycott to work.

Finally as the last few people were going to bed, Michael spoke. "Guys, do your realize if this works we could very well change how the boarding school is run forever? Think about it for a second. We could bring Mr. Day back. Create an opening for the arts in a troubled school. And we could even bring back the girls!" 

"Not to burst your bubble because you are so excited right now, Michael, that it's actually kind of cute, but what happens if we fail?" Calum interjected. 

"Don't think about that. Failure is not an option."

"Oh, but it really is." Calum stated with a shiver. 

"Whatever happens, at least we tried." Ashton said after Michael's face dropped. "That's all that matters."


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know it’s gonna get better.

There are times in life when you second guess whether or not your doing the right thing. Maybe the risks outweigh the benefits. Maybe it's not worth it because it's just high school, and soon you'll be out of that place and your life will go on and none of it will have mattered. But the next generation will enter the place you left behind. As in life, the next generation will enter the workforce our parents left behind. It continues like this forever. So it is up to us, to make sure the next journey someone else takes is better than the one we were on. 

That's why Ashton wanted to do this so badly. He wanted to make a difference to better the future. 

The next morning at breakfast there was an air of anticipation in the air. Even the teachers felt it, although Almorado refused to acknowledge it. Nearly the entire school was waiting in anticipation.

Into this charged atmosphere, Ashton, Calum, Luke and Michael walked into the cafeteria. 

They sat down, with Luke sitting between Calum and Michael. Barely a minute after they began eating an army of frogs hopped all over the teacher's table. 

Almorado was furious, as the entire school burst into laughter. Even some of the staff found it a struggle to contain their laughter.

"Who is responsible for this?" Almorado shrieked.

Mrs. Lash held her hand over her mouth to cover her smile as she said "Ms. Almorado  you obviously have little experience with children if you think they will simply come forward and admit their guilty." 

Laughter continued to rise in intensity; even Brandon had stopped trying, and just sat in his chair chuckling.

Almorado, her face contorted with fury sent everyone to class. Ashton looked at Michael, "do you have it?" He was referencing the prank they were about to pull. Michael simply nodded. 

The next hour was supposed to be a class for freshmen. The boys watched practically convulsing with laughter as Almorado came out with a blinding rage because  _not one student sh_ owed up to her class.

Eventually, Almorado stormed out of the room, only to see the sign on the door that said:

_All Science Classes canceled until a suitable teacher can be found_

_By order of_ _**Gandhi** _

Luke smiled with pride when his teacher shriked at the sign he placed on the door. 

"Since when did you start breaking the rules?" Ashton asked Luke finally.

Luke gave a small bitter smile "When the rules decided to try and break me."

Ashton gave him a sad sympathy smile. He was proud of Luke for all the work he has done, but he will never stop feeling sorry for all the shit Luke had to endure in his life. 

Michael was quick to change the subject, "come on guys, it's about to start." 

They rushed to the next class room where Almorado was to teach and they met several friendly faces on the way there. 

"Hi guys. Everyone in position." The whole group of students, which were kids from different classes and ages, all sat on the floor around the class room door. 

"Stay strong everyone. Don't give up." Michael yelled as they heard their teacher approach. Linking arms, the students stayed plastered to the hardwood floor. 

Ms. Almorado's face could not have swollen red anymore than it did or else it would've popped off her head. 

"This is an outrage! Security! Make these students go back to class!" 

In the end, there were a few casualties, the ones that got caned, and a few who retreated in fear, but the boycott remained strong. 

The day after the newspaper gave their unexpected endorsement to the boycott, Principal Feldmann marched into the Cafeteria during lunch with twenty security guards in tow. 

He walked up to the podium at the front of the room. Meanwhile the security spread out along the edges of the room.

Most of the students looked around uneasily. Ashton thought that this looked far too similar to a roundup for his comfort.

"Students of The Summer's Institution" feldmann began pompously. "I have come here today to inform you that you  _will_ be going to all of your classes from now on." Growls and snarls met that statement. The minister however ignored them. "Failure to comply will result in your immediate expulsion." Almorado smirked "This little revolt of yours is now over."

Obviously Almorado expected every one of the students to just calmly obey her orders. That's not what happened.

Ashton stood up. He was glaring fiercely at Almorado. "If you think that we are just going to roll over for you and your  _thugs_ , you have another thing coming" he said with barely suppressed fury.

The principal gaped for a moment and Almorado quickly called out "Security, arrest this traitorous slime." 

Two aurors moved towards Ashton, and he began to feel a bit nervous. Was the movement weaker than he thought?

Then Colin McFly stood up a few seats down. "You're not taking Ashton." He said firmly. Then he called out in a carrying voice that no one knew he had. "Give us liberty, or give us death! There is no in-between!"

The guards kept coming, they had their tasers pointed at Ashton and one of them sneered "Surrender, you are under arrest for interrupting the peace." 

Luke stood up next to Ashton and yelled out "Liberty or death!"

It took seconds.

Seconds that would change their world forever.

Every student in the cafeteria rose to their feet chanting.

"Liberty or death! Liberty or death! Liberty or death! Liberty or death! Liberty or death! Liberty or death!"

The security guards froze. Feldmann froze, the students didn't. The chanting continued. The two security officers who had been sent to arrest Ashton were now facing nearly twenty students. 

Almorado paled. She realized that this had gotten out of control. The chanting grew louder in volume and faster in pace until the chant became garbled. Then they switched to cheering and stamping their feet.

Almorado still yelled to be heard over the crowd.

"You must go to class! Now!"

Michael shook his head. At this rate the rest of the faculty began chanting a new chant. This one even louder than the last. 

"HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!

HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!

HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!

HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!

HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!

HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!

HELL NO! WE WON'T GO!"

The chant got louder and louder, Luke wondered if it would blow out the windows in the hall, it was that loud.

Almorado paled as she saw what was left of her control over the school evaporate. She rushed up to Feldmann and yelled in his ear (so that he could hear her over the chanting)

"I think we may have to try a different tactic." 

Feldmann shook his head. "You know what, Almorado. You're fired!" He shouted it so loud the entire student body hushed to a silence with the exception of a few students who didn't hear what Feldmann said. 

"Excuse me?!" She exclaimed, "you can't fire me! I'm a part of the gov-"

"This is my school." Feldmann said, "and I don't care who you are or who has the power or wealth or whatever to stop me. If Valdez stops funding us, then I will cut all of the program's here and personally teach my students if it means you will stop abusing them." 

For a while, the students couldn't believe what was happening. Neither could Almorado. The security guard, Dave, came from the crowd and took Almorado by the arm.

 "I'll call the police, I think they will be interested in having an investigation on how she treated these students." 

"I couldn't agree more." Feldmann clapped him on the back and then turned to the student body. "listen up. Things are going to change around here. We may have to cut back on our sports and music programs. But we are definitely changing the discipline system. From now on, I'm going to work with you if you guys work with me. First, I really do need all of you to head back to class." 

At Feldmann's words, the student body disbursed. Students went to different classes and continued the day normally. Halfway through 6th period, Luke was called down to the principal's office. Ashton, Michael and Calum tagged along too, of course. 

"Luke, we need the whole story on what actually happened that day you witnessed Almorado and Kelly. If she is responsible for that girl's death, then we have an innocent young man locked up in prison when it should really be her." 

Luke shook his head, and looked down at his hands. "I don't know much. All I know is Kelly went into the teacher lounge and Almorado came out. I never saw Troy Fisher anywhere." 

The police scribbled some notes and looked to Feldmann. "You said the boy was staying in the school a few years early because his mother arranged it?" 

"Yes," Feldmann cleared his throat, "Luke's mom called and said her husband wasn't the best person to be in Luke's life and she wanted me to take him in a year early. I said I would do it as long as he helped the teachers around here." 

"Very good. So was he mainly Mr. Day's responsibility?" 

"Yes, and mine." Feldmann smiled at Luke and Luke couldn't help but feel more at ease. 

"Alright Luke, you claimed Almorado was hurting you."

Ashton snapped,"she  _was_  hurting him. He didn't just claim it."

"Yes," the officer glared, "that's what I'm trying to find out." He turned his attention back to Luke. "So, why was she hurting you? And just you?" 

"Is it because you witness what happened with Kelly Marlo?" Calum asked and the office cleared his throat loudly. "Please don't ask a leading question." 

"A what?-"

Luke interrupted the short banter by answering, "witnessing the situation might have been part of the reason she targeted me, but there was something else too." 

"Like what?" Ashton asked, completely curious. He didn't really care how angry his was making the officers behind him. 

Playing with his shirt's sleeve, Luke gave an uneasy sigh. Ashton wasn't sure why Luke was so nervous, but the whole conversation about someone who did horrible things to him couldn't be easy to discuss. To show Ashton's was there for him, he grabbed Luke's hand and squeezed it softly. 

A smile formed on Luke's round lips. Ashton could feel him building up the courage to admit something. 

"I'm not sure what this means," Luke began, "but every time she would tell me to meet her, she always asked where I hid it. I think it was the knife she used because she mentioned a few times that it wasn't where she left it." 

"The murder weapon is missing? It was collected during the investigation." 

"No, that was the knife with Troy Fisher's fingerprints. She put that in place of the real one with her fingerprints. I guess she went to dispose of the real weapon and realized it was missing." 

"Great!" The office exclaimed, "then give us the weapon and we have a closed case." 

"I don't have the weapon." Luke complained, "if I did, I would have given them to get a long time ago and end the abuse!" 

"So the weapon somehow went missing and you didn't take it?"

"Right." 

"Is there anyone who could have taken the weapon? Did you see anyone go in the room?" 

"The only person who went in the room was Mr. Day and I." 

"Do you think Mr. Day took the knife? Is that why she wanted him removed from the school?" 

"Maybe." 

The officer scribbled some more notes. "Is Mr. Day coming back?" He asked Feldmann. 

"Yes, I've already contacted him." 

"Very well. I guess this case is still going on. But at least the kids can go back to normal since that toxic woman was removed." 

Calum shook his head softly, "if only it were that simple. I'm afraid we won't be 'back to normal' for a long time." 

               ______________________

Like all great things, it took time. Time for Luke to recover, time for Michael to forgive himself, time for Calum to try his own path, and time for Ashton to fix the school. But it happened slowly, and things did get better. Ashton's never felt so proud to be living proof that life does go on and things do get better. He couldn't think of a better way to express this thought than to put it in a song. 

"I want to thank all of you for supporting us this whole year!" Ashton said pointing to the crowd of people. Students and faculty clapped their hands while the talent scouts remained unchanged. 

This was it, the talent show at the end of the year. Mr. Day might be grading them, but more importantly he was backstage supporting them. Michael gave him a wave, and Mr. Day did the same. Principal Feldmann, was sitting next to the talent scouts, talking to a few of them just like he did last night with Calum's parents. Last night, Calum lost his father's support. He was completely disowned. He felt more lost in his life than ever before, but his friends were there for him as well as Feldmann. 

Principal Feldmann promised he would watch Calum and Luke for the rest of the year and keep them under his responsibility. He was willing to go to court and everything. 

"I know this is a music project for class, but this song means a lot more to us as a band and to us as a school than some stupid grade. I know we've all been through a lot, so my band and I wrote this song for you." 

Without further introduction, Luke's deep, soft voice swept through the air. 

"Carry on, let the good times roll. 

Sail along, let your path unfold

It won't be long, won't be long, won't be long

You know it's gonna get better  
You know it's gonna get better

  
Say a prayer for the broken bones  
'Cause who cares?  
We're all going home  
And it won't be long, won't be long, won't be long

  
You know it's gonna get better

You know it's gonna get better

  
I got one foot in the golden life, one foot in the gutter  
So close to the other side, so far from the wonder  
I got one foot in the golden life, one foot in the gutter  
So sick of the tug of war, that keeps pulling me under

Let the good times roll  
Let the good times roll

Carry on, outlast the ignorance  
Moving on, survive the innocence  
Won't be long, won't be long, won't be long  
You know it's gonna get better..." 


End file.
